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About the Project
The scope of a vanishing tradition and culture of quail hunting in Texas reaches far beyond the art of photography. Lokey traveled throughout Texas’s quail country to photograph and study the trucks represented in his book Texas Quail Rigs which will be released in March 2014. Each one of the 120 plus rigs is different, and reflects the personality of its owner and builder. His project was an opportunity to ensure a place in history for a tradition that has gone on for decades and is ever changing as the quail population and hunters grow less each year. The photographs are as much a tribute to the unique rigs and their owners as it is to an era of tradition. Lokey’s photographs should be seen as a documentation of history as much as art.
About the Photographer
LOKEY was born in Amarillo, TX. and grew up in Houston, TX. After graduating from The Art Institute of Houston in 1998 and receiving an Associates of Applied Science Degree he went on to attend the School of Photographic Studies in Prague, Czech Republic. He moved to Phoenix, AZ working as a free-lance photographer. Around 2002 he focused his photography to fine art and spends summers abroad photographing street photography in Europe.
His work is included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the Amarillo Museum of Art, as well the Arizona State University and many private collections.
Lokey’s photographs have been exhibited throughout the United States and Europe including Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania, NAFOTO’s IV Mes International da Forografia-San Palo, Brazil, The Amarillo Museum of Art-Amarillo, Texas, Li Photo Gallery-San Palo, Brazil, Gallery 4118- Houston, TX and Kunsthaus Tacheles-Berlin, Germany. He has participated in several past FotoFest Biennial reviews and exhibited at two participating spaces during 2012 FotoFest.
March 2014 Lokey will be having a book signing and exhibit of Texas Quail Rigs at Meredith Long & Company, Houston, as a part of FotoFest participating spaces.
Brief History of Quail Hunting
What is it about a small brown bird that fans the flames of extremism in sportsmen? Maybe it is the civility of quail hunting that lends much of its appeal. To the gentlemen hunters it is the conversations of good companions, watching a great dog work and the outdoors that count more than the number of birds shot.
On ranches in Texas where a pasture may cover thousands of acres, practicality of covering distances, lead to customized hunting vehicles. Designs are limited only by the imagination and money. Many quail rigs are equipped with a seat behind the cab and jump seats mounted in front of the cab. Particularly in South Texas, where the weather is nice, riding outside the cab is usually comfortable and is the best way to watch dogs work, before bailing out when they go on point of the quail.
What is it about a small brown bird that fans the flames of extremism in sportsmen? Maybe it is the civility of quail hunting that lends much of its appeal. To the gentlemen hunters it is the conversations of good companions, watching a great dog work and the outdoors that count more than the number of birds shot.
On ranches in Texas where a pasture may cover thousands of acres, practicality of covering distances, lead to customized hunting vehicles. Designs are limited only by the imagination and money. Many quail rigs are equipped with a seat behind the cab and jump seats mounted in front of the cab. Particularly in South Texas, where the weather is nice, riding outside the cab is usually comfortable and is the best way to watch dogs work, before bailing out when they go on point of the quail.
A number of custom vehicle shops around Texas specialize in building custom hunting rigs, that run the gamut from one-ton war wagons to Jeeps, Gators, Kawasaki Mules, or similar vehicles tricked out to fit the specific needs of each hunter.
You may ask yourself why don’t Texas hunters simply walk behind their dogs? Some of them do, but it is more efficient to ride, particularly in huge country where it’s a long way to the next logical cover and the deep sand of South Texas makes walking tough.
The Texas Quail Rigs are as much a tradition to gentlemen hunters as the hunt itself. Today the generation of the gentlemen hunters and their rigs are slowly dying. With the lessening of the numbers of quail, the expense of leases and guides, and the aging of a generation of traditional gentlemen hunters, there is little doubt that it is a tradition that is slowly disappearing and needed to be documented for history.
About the Book
Trade Edition: $85 / Hardcover 900 copies 10 X 12 landscape, 296 pages.
Limited Edition: $600.00 / Clamshell Box, 100 copies signed and numbered, includes a 8 X 10 signed photograph.
About the Photographs
Type: C-Prints
Presentation of Photographs: Framed and Matted
Linear Feet for Exhibition: Space can be adjusted according to space available
- Size: 16 X 20 - or - 24 X 36
Price: Signed and Numbered Prints
- Editions of 25 - 8 X 10 - $350 / 16 X 20 - $750
- Edition of 5 - 24 X 36 - $1500