Uploaded June 2011 | Updated September 2026, 6 hours ago
In the Big Hole Valley of southwestern Montana, Cynthia Baldauf photographs cowboys, horses and hay. For twelve years she's been documenting ranch and family life in the Big Hole, a valley more than 6300 feet above sea level.
Cynthia wants to capture the images of ranchers and their families, and of cowboys at work. She says you can't pose many of the photographs she takes; you simply have to be where the action is, and be ready when the image presents itself.
Watch as Cynthia explains how the valley's single crop of hay is brought in at the end of the short summer, and experience the coldness of the Big Hole Valley's long winter as she follows a horse drawn sled out to feed cattle on giant ranches with "loose hay.".
Buck Rakes, Beaver slides and horse drawn hay mowers, foreign to most of us outside the valley, are central to Cynthia's story. She's been documenting the valley for more than a decade and still has no idea when her work in the Big Hole Valley will be complete.
In the Big Hole Valley of southwestern Montana, Cynthia Baldauf photographs cowboys, horses and hay. For twelve years she's been documenting ranch and family life in the Big Hole, a valley more than 6300 feet above sea level.
Cynthia wants to capture the images of ranchers and their families, and of cowboys at work. She says you can't pose many of the photographs she takes; you simply have to be where the action is, and be ready when the image presents itself.
Watch as Cynthia explains how the valley's single crop of hay is brought in at the end of the short summer, and experience the coldness of the Big Hole Valley's long winter as she follows a horse drawn sled out to feed cattle on giant ranches with "loose hay.".
Buck Rakes, Beaver slides and horse drawn hay mowers, foreign to most of us outside the valley, are central to Cynthia's story. She's been documenting the valley for more than a decade and still has no idea when her work in the Big Hole Valley will be complete.
