Walt Browarny ~ Photographer

Walt Browarny’s name is immediately recognizable by most in the cattle industry. In large measure, his full-time career shift was prompted by the importation of the exotics and the consequent A.I. agenda. People wanted to see what bull they were committing to and so the demand for his livestock photography escalated. (See his website at http://www.browarny.com/legacy/ . The new link appears to be at http://www.showchampions.com/PhotoStock and is under development as of October 2011.)

In Simmental Country magazine, August 1987:71 (“The Man With The Camera” by Ted Pritchett, pp. 67-74), we read:

The early Simmental breeders slowly came to appreciate the difference good photos could make to a bull.

[Browarny recalled] “I didn’t do the early photo work on Parisien as a young bull because one of the fellows at SBL [probably meaning Travers] had the philosophy he’d just shoot a pile of pictures himself and eventually come up with a good one. He’d bring all these pictures in to me and I’d spread them all over the floor and sort through them. Then I’d tell him—look, here’s the best one, and is that what the bull really looks like? He had to admit no and that’s when he realized the value of our services. They also had some bulls that were difficult to picture and that’s when they finally called me. SBL then became one of my best customers.

“The first picture I took of Parisien was out at Western Breeders when he was a three year old. …”

That negative is now in a bank vault along with the other famous bulls Walter has pictured over the years and only the working negatives are kept at the photo lab.

His best customers were the bull studs because everyone soon realized they needed pictures to sell semen.

[Browarny added] “ You can talk all you want about a bull, but people still want to see a picture and we were kept busy working seven days a week, often shooting 10-15 bulls a day."

One of his early videos of Parisien can be seen at: http://www.browarny.com/legacy/video/clip17.html [New link under development at http://www.showchampions.com/PhotoStock .]

In time, it is hoped that more of Browarny photos of those early SBL bulls will be available on his Walt Browarny Legacy site at: http://www.browarny.com/legacy/gallery.html [New link under development: see http://www.showchampions.com/PhotoStock .]

[Added October 31, 2011] We were sad to hear of Walt's passing August 24, 2011. His obituary can be found at http://www.mhfh.com/browarny-walter-walt-harry/  and http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/todays-paper/Walt+Browarny+Noted+livestock+photographer+start+Denver+show/5318953/story.html