One look at the Bonafide Cowboy’s Instagram page and you are immersed in a world of edgy and moody cowboys and cowgirls doing what they do best. What better way to launch the inaugural issue of Modern Cowboy Magazine than sitting down with Western Lifestyle Photographer, Kenzie Holmberg, to chat about the modern era of Western lifestyle photography as well as learn more about her journey to how she got to where she is today.
Krysta: Can you tell our audience a little more about yourself?
Kenzie: I have always been very artistic and was never the athletic type of kid. I actually grew up with an autoimmune disease, so it changed a lot of my childhood but I never let that define what I did with my life. When I reflect on it now, it did shape a lot of who I was, how I look at life, and how I do things.
As long as I can remember, I’ve always had a passion for art. I love to draw and paint but I don’t know if I would say I am naturally gifted but that passion for art followed me into college. I went to the University of Wyoming and throughout my entire college career, I really didn’t have a set idea of what I wanted to do as far as a career. I knew that I loved the Western industry and rodeo and I wanted to work in that industry but I just didn’t know in what capacity that would look like.
Fast forward, I graduated college and ended up in Montana where I worked for a large nonprofit and worked for them for about six months. It was a strenuous, time-consuming job and I had a lot of responsibility but I loved it. During my time at that job, I realized I really wanted to start focusing on a side hustle that I had been building for a while, which was doing some graphic and web design for some rodeo athlete friends. I ended up picking up a camera my senior year of college but I always just thought of photography as something that could help like my graphic and web design side hustle.
So I started building my photography portfolio with no formal training; everything was just trial and error for me. Then COVID hit and that essentially kickstarted my official photographer career. So I kind of just dove into it head first and luckily for me it paid off. Now it is my full-time career and I absolutely love it.
Krysta: You’ve worked with some of the largest names in the Western industry, is that what you had always envisioned doing in your photography career?
Kenzie: I think if you had told me years ago that I would be doing what I do now I probably would have laughed. When I started photography, it was more just complimentary to designing websites because I didn’t have to pay somebody else to take the photos. In the beginning, I loved the Western lifestyle photography component but I didn’t know how to monetize it so I could do it for a living. One day, I was flipping through a magazine and looked at some of the ads and I went, “This is Western lifestyle but people probably have to pay for these”. So I decided to try to see if I could work in the commercial space even though I had no idea where to start.
I made a lot of mistakes and I did a lot of free work in the beginning that I probably shouldn’t have but I’m glad I did it for the experience of all of it. I’m thankful that some of the brands that I’ve worked with took a chance on me back then. These days, I have a variety of clients from a lot of different industries. I don’t know very many people who get to be as creative as I get to be with my art and have clients who trust me to build a voice in my space that I hadn’t had before.
Krysta: Was there a key turning point in your business/career that made a huge difference for you moving forward or solidified your offerings?
Kenzie: One of the first memorable compliments I ever got that solidified my love of Western lifestyle photography, was after I took some cool photos at a ranch bronc riding. It was the first time I had gotten a lot of traction on one of my photos and people were saying that my art looked like a Western painting. That was one of my first memorable moments where I was like, “Yes! That’s what I want to evoke.” The second major turning point was COVID because I had to decide whether to go all in on my business or not and I haven’t looked back since.
Krysta: Can you describe your creative process?
Kenzie: My process is different for every shoot but I don’t have a set creative process and I actually heavily rely on models to give me inspiration as we go. Some of the models I’ve worked with are professionals but most of the people I use are real, everyday people. I’ve had my parents and grandparents model for me before. I have friends who are just cowboys that I suckered into photoshoots with the bribe of beer later. I like having the real people element because my clients appreciate that they look like their target audience. The photos end up coming off as more relatable because people can see themselves in my photos rather than just seeing professional models.
I pride myself on keeping authenticity at the forefront of everything I do. That even comes through with the tack and the equipment I put on horses. You will not see tack put on incorrectly and you will not see subpar-looking horses at my shoots.
Then there’s choosing a location that I know is going to highlight my client’s products. Most of my shoots now are not staged. For example, I will take photos of real branding, or capture someone training horses or feeding cows. I try to bring as much of the lifestyle component into it as I can and just set people up to thrive in their natural environment. The results from this leave readers with a better feeling than what you see in your typical corporate magazine ads. Sometimes things are just so avant-garde that it makes it hard to be relatable and I think we live in a society that craves authenticity because people are constantly being sold to.
Krysta: When people view your work, is there a certain way you want people to feel or take away from your photography?
Kenzie: I tend to have a moodier style than most but I want people to see the beauty and simpler side of this lifestyle. I love playing with texture. So incorporating old abandoned buildings, the wrinkles of hard work on older folks and just really capturing the grit of the moment. As I said, my models are real people, so I want them to feel like I’ve captured the essence of who they are. Then on the opposite end of that, I want people viewing those photos to feel like they know them.
A great example of this was when I shared a short video that I took of my grandma in some blue suede boots during a photo shoot. And when I shared it on my Instagram, it was just like out of the woodwork, there were 1000s of comments that were like “I feel like I know her” and “I want to be like her when I grow up”. The funny thing was that she wasn’t even talking in the video but I think people were able to fall in love with her just through that clip.
Then the second one was a video of a man named Joe. I was working on a Cinch campaign at the time and I had somebody nominate him to model for me. He’s an older Hispanic gentleman and he just told the coolest stories. So I had a friend capture some video during the shoot and later, when I went to share a teaser, I received a lot of the same kind of comments as my grandmother’s video. The comment section was filled with “I love stuff like this” and “I love these stories”. People were relating to him so much and it was crazy how much it brought people together. Going back to how I want people to feel when they see my work, I would love all of my photos or videos to bring people together like that. I also want to romanticize the Spirit of the West but not in the way that Hollywood has portrayed or overdramatized it. I want people to see the resilience, the grit, and the heart behind the people in this lifestyle.
Krysta: How do you think we can make the Western industry more accessible to people outside of it? And is that something we should be doing?
Kenzie: This is something that we, as an industry, have struggled with for years now. I think what it comes down to is education. We are some of our biggest enemies because, to an extent, we’ve played into the stereotypes people give us. The PRCA and the PBR do a great job, they have rules and advocate for athletes and animals but when it comes down to it, PETA and other animal rights activist groups still do a far better job at marketing to the general public than we do. This is the tough part of our industry because it has to start with us and I think we have this social responsibility to keep our culture alive. But if we want to do that, it’s going to take effort from everyone.
New people coming in are going to have questions, they are going to have new ideas and that’s the beauty of this industry growing, but we can’t be putting people down and making them feel bad for not knowing anything because we all had to start somewhere. With all of the attention our industry has been getting, it’s natural to want to protect it but protecting it doesn’t mean excluding other people from it; it means teaching them how to be included in it. It’s not going to happen overnight, but I think it starts with individuals, it starts with you. You might not feel it, but generations later, your actions could have a huge impact on how the cowboy industry stays alive.
Krysta: When you think of “cowboy” as a culture, what does that mean to you?
Kenzie: I’ve lived in four different states now where cowboy culture is different in every state. Cowboy culture to me, goes beyond the cowboy hat. It’s the character, the love of the land, and the appreciation for the animals. It’s more than just a job title and a way of life. It’s the people and the stories that make it up.
Closing Thoughts
This was such an enlightening and refreshing conversation with Kenzie. I think the biggest takeaway is that if we want our industry to thrive, it’s our responsibility to make that happen. Modern Cowboy Magazine is dedicated to sharing stories of trailblazers just like Kenzie to encourage the growth of our industry and culture. Make sure to connect with Kenzie online at BonafideCowboy.com. You can also find her on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube @BonafideCowboy.
