AFM: What workshops do you teach?
CLR: I teach digital, one-on-one workshops in my gallery to show individuals how to use HDR on their photos in addition to teaching group workshops throughout Arizona. Just recently I was invited to teach a "Photographing the Old West" workshop at the Telluride Film Festival in Telluride, CO. The festival this year focuses on women in photography, which is a good thing! I am really excited and honored to be able to attend and teach at this event.
AFM: What are some future goals you have for yourself and your photography?
CLR: I would like to get my work into more galleries throughout the West and Southwest. I do have work showcased in Casa de Artistas, which is a gallery on Main Street in Old Town Scottsdale. I would like to write more books, articles for magazine and teach more workshops. I would also like to have more commercial designers look at my work since I think it would fit in nicely for commercial applications such as restaurants and hotels.
AFM: Fascinated by a photograph of a wild horse in her gallery, Cheyenne unveiled the story behind the photo.
CLR: The Bureau of Land Management is at a furious pace to round up these beautiful icons of the West and place them in holding pens. I met an amazing women who runs the Monero Mustang Sanctuary in New Mexico; she is the caretaker of 5000 acres of land where these horses are free to roam. She adopts the horses with the little money she gets through donations so they can gallop freely around the high desert. I am not much of a horse girl, but these wild horses are an enduring symbol of freedom and I find them so beautiful with their wild manes and free spirit. I am all about freedom: creative, financial and spiritual. Photographing wild horses is my way of bringing light to their plight.
AFM: What can we expect from you in the upcoming future?
CLR: I do not want to give too much way, but expect rusty and dusty old, car doors to be spotted around the gallery in the near future.
AFM: What advice would you give to someone who wishes to purse his or her passion in life?
CLR: If I have a rough week I stand in my gallery and look at what I have achieved and sometimes think, 'how did I do that?' It has been a rollercoaster, but I feel like I am doing what I am supposed to be doing on this Earth. You have to decide to go for it and want it more than anything. I tell people that this isn't a dress rehearsal; you might as well do exactly what you want to do with your life.
To learn more about the adventure enthusiast, Cheyenne L Rouse, and her photography that Celebrates the American West visit her gallery website www.ancientlightphotos.com or to learn about her workshops visit her blog: www.cheyennerouse.com.
