AN EYE FOR THE WEST

 

Ephraim woman loves Western style photography

 

By Kristi Shields 

Staff writer

7-9-2020

 

She said she is so amazed at how much old western style is here, and she feels like no one here really appreciates it; but it’s slowly going away.

“We love it here, we came here and saw how country it was… it felt like home,” JoAnn said.

Peggy McCosh, JoAnn’s daughter-in-law, said JoAnn has always loved small western towns.

JoAnn started taking photos when she was a teenager; she was told in relief society to find a talent that she didn’t know she had.

“I just started [taking photos] and then I guess I was pretty good at it, but I didn’t realize I was good at it,” JoAnn said.

JoAnn said she takes drives with her husband looking for old western stuff to photograph. A large chunk of her photos are of horses because she loves horses and has owned them almost all of her life. She also shoots cabins, fences, farms, old buildings and flowers.

JoAnn makes her photos into cards, and she’s enters them at the Sanpete County Fair contests. She won two awards for her photography.

When she takes the photos, she wonders a lot about the history behind the cabins and farms. Such as who built it? What was it like to live there? What’s the story behind this building?

Peggy said, “She has a really good eye even with her macular degeneration. It was mostly just the romance of it. The old west is like her childhood.”

“I [take photos] because I love it, because I love the old west,” JoAnn said. “I’m not sure why I’m so attached to the old west, but I grew up loving horses.”