Best of the West 2025: True Westerner Jay Dusard

Our 2025 True Westerner: Jay Dusard

Go West!

True West’s editors’ favorites reflect the many wonderful facets that create the real and imagined West we all love and cherish.

For two decades, True West magazine’s editors have celebrated their Western favorites. The men and women behind the Best of the West winners are the backbone of the Western United States and on the frontlines of keeping our heritage and culture alive for all of us to enjoy.

A man who has had a great influence on my life—and my spirited passion for everything Western—is this year’s True Westerner of the Year, Jay Dusard. Jay is an American original, a man who for nearly six decades single-handedly helped reshape Western photography with his mastery of the large-format camera and passion for the people and landscape of the West. I first met Jay through my father, Jeb Rosebrook. They both taught at the Orme School of Arizona’s annual Fine Arts Festival. Jay taught photography, and Jeb taught creative writing. They were friends for 50 years. Jay and I later worked together on articles for Camera & Darkroom, Arizona Highways and True West. He is a friend and mentor and someone who always encouraged me to see beyond the horizon. We are honored at True West to name him our True Westerner of the Year. Just pick up any book on the American cowboy published since Jay’s groundbreaking The North American Cowboy was published in 1983, and you will quickly realize that he defined a genre that has many imitators but no equals.

So, enjoy this year’s Best of the West and begin making plans for your next Western adventure, additions to your Old West collection, wardrobe and library. Be ready to be surprised, awed and amazed in ways you can’t imagine on your next road trip across the West.

Stuart Rosebrook is the executive director of Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott, Arizona, and an editor-at-large for True West. He believes that when traveling across the West one should always take time for a photo-op and to enjoy a great vista.