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Award-winning photographer Jane Hilton spent four years documenting the life of the 21st century cowboy… and talking her way into their bedrooms. She tells Bella Todd about uncovering a sensitive side to this enduring icon of American culture

How did your fascination with cowboys start?
I was brought up with ‘70s Westerns, watching TV on Saturday afternoons, and later I worked in the West and got to know it really well. Occasionally I’d come across the odd cowboy or adrenaline-fuelled bull-rider. One time, I was diverted up to Cortez, Colorado by The Times. They said ‘Could you go and photograph this young cowboy, Jeremiah Karsten, who’s just ridden across the United States on a horse?’ I think it was a crossroads in his life, his parents had just divorced, he was partying too much… He had a string of eight or nine colts behind him as he rode, and would break them in as he went. He was 17 when he started and 19-and-a-half when he got to Mexico.

Jeremiah Karsten, Cowboy, Cortez, Colorado 2006

Bleedin’ Heart

An exhibition by members of the Cor Blimey Arts collective, an artist led studio and gallery complex in Deptford, South East London, who strive to make interesting contemporary work. Artists include Gillian Best Powell, Arnold Borgerth, Rosalind Davis, Kasia Fijalkowska, Leyla Folwell, Pierre Gerard and many others.

Bleedin’ Heart, Blue Dog Gallery, 20 Gardner Street, 01273 622440. Until 16 July
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European Fields

At the beginning of the 1995 football season, Hans van der Meer set out to take a series of football photographs that avoided the clichéd traditions of modern sports photography. Taking in matches at the bottom end of the amateur leagues to the heights of the Champions’ League, he strove to find the original passion and humanity of the beautiful game.
European Fields, Crane Kalman, 38 Kensington Gardens, 01273 697096. Until 11 July Read the rest of this article »

The Art of Truth, Compassion, Tolerance

Opening a window into ancient and contemporary China, this exhibition portrays the story of Falun Gong – a traditional Chinese self-improvement practice – via realistic oil paintings and watercolours from mostly Chinese artists.

The Art of Truth, Compassion, Tolerance, 31 Marina Square, Brighton Marina, 07946 591 198. Until 11 July

Gormley: Critical Mass

Acclaimed sculptor Antony Gormley’s Critical Mass is made up of five casts from 12 discrete moulds of Gormley’s body. The aim
is for the body forms to evoke emotions from the viewer depending upon which way they are orientated. Situated on the terrace of
this suitably modernist building.

Antony Gormley: Critical Mass, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, 01424 229111. Until 31 August

Beyond Practice

An exhibition by 43 final year students from the Media and Practice and Theory BA degree course, featuring film dramas and documentaries, photograph, digital installations and radio documentaries. Offers thought provoking and alternative views on all walks of life, from the police and pensioners to fetishists and the working man’s club!

Beyond Practice, Silverstone Building, University of Sussex, Falmer, 01273 678888. Until 2 June

Pavilion Unseen

During the 1820s, the Royal Pavilion was more than simply a sumptuous playground for an errant king: it was an elaborate and magical stage set, upon which the strata of society played out their roles.

The Pavilion Unseen project by photographer Michael Hughes sets out to capture this transfer of energy and social structure from one domain to another through a series of images taken of the Royal Pavilion at night, using only available light.

Pavilion Unseen, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, 01273 2909000. Until 1 August