The original photograph (a panoramic much larger than the detail shown here) was taken in September 1902, on Ocean Beach in San Francisco, and shows William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody mounted on his horse "Duke" at front center. Lined up on either side of him are members of his "Wild West" show troupe.

Artist Thom Ross has recreated the photograph with life size painted plywood cutouts which take up a large part of the north end of Ocean Beach near the Cliff House. It's a wonderful wild west site to behold. It's fun to view the scene from afar, as well as, seeing all the painted details plus added embellishments like ribbons, fringe, beads, studs and bells when close-up.

Heres a portrait of the artist, Thom Ross with his Annie Oakley and Custer (?) cut outs — and a link to the Chronicle article.

I enjoyed watching Max explore the scene, though he lost interest fairly quickly because he said the beach was stinky. He kept walking around pinching his nose and mumbling.


There was one faceless indian cut out with a ladder up the backside so you could take a "stick your face in it" picture. Max was too scared to go up so high so I went up and he took a picture of me with my iPhone. Perhaps he's a photographer in the making?!@#!

Technorati Tags: art, San Francisco