Jay Dusard, born in St. Louis in 1937, was raised on a southern Illinois farm. A 1981 Guggenheim Fellowship freed Dusard to pursue the working cowboy, buckaroo, and vaquero as a photographic subject. The resulting body of work was published in The North American Cowboy: A Portrait (1983). His second book, Open Country, was awarded third place in the 1994 Photographic Book of the Year competition. Horses was a 2005 collaboration with writer Thomas McGuane. Among numerous venues, his work has been exhibited at the Phoenix Art Museum, Glenbow Museum (Calgary), Colorado Springs fine Arts Center, Consejo Mexicano de Fotografia (Mexico City), Art Museum of South Texas, and the International Photography Hall of Fame (Oklahoma City). Jay lives with his wife, Kathie, near Douglas, Arizona, where, between trips to photograph and teach workshops, he raises quarter horses, punches cows and plays jazz cornet.