The Coventry photographer juggling life as a cowboy in Arizona

“I’m there in it, with the dirt around me, the cows around me, and that’s exactly where I want to be.”

Kevin Donnelly might need grown up in a Coventry suburb, however in contrast to his faculty friends, he now juggles his time as a wrangler and photographer in Arizona, USA.

He began life at St Anne’s RC Primary School earlier than occurring to develop into a photographer working in Thailand, New York and Los Angeles.

But in 2020 Mr Donnelly found “the most beautiful landscapes” and a neighborhood “massively” just like Willenhall, Coventry, however within the American south-west.

“Willenhall has an excellent sense of community, and it is echoed out there in Arizona,” he stated.

“No one has to pay an interest in someone else’s life, but they do because it’s an honourable, good thing to do.

“It’s similar to Willenhall in some ways.”

Discussing the communities in Arizona he has encountered, the photographer said: “I really feel like while you get out into rural America, individuals gives you the shirt off their again more often than not.

“A lot of people try to give it a bit of stick, but in my experience people have been wonderful – they’re really intrigued that a guy from England would be running around, lying in dirt, taking photos of wonderful horses and taking risks.”

He added: “For me, it’s an honour to photograph rural communities in the American south-west because these are the people that grow the food for the rest of the country.

“When I acquired on the market it was all the pieces I believed it might be and extra. There have been some actually fascinating subcultures – individuals of all ethnicities.

“Out there because life is tough, everyone has each other’s backs – especially in Arizona – everyone looks out for one another.

“There’s an actual sense of neighborhood and cohesion, and that is what I wished to seize on digital camera. I feel it is necessary to inform that story; it is lovely.”

While expanding his photography portfolio, Mr Donnelly also works as a wrangler and “works the land”, but he said this gives him a “actually distinctive perspective” compared to other photographers.

“I’ve at all times acquired my digital camera on me since you by no means know when a second or a scene will open up whereas on horseback,” he stated.

“So I carry my digital camera whereas on horseback and snap and shoot the place I can.

“That’s great, because while riding it’s given me the chance to improve my horsemanship but simultaneously get the shot on horseback, six feet off the ground.”