Branding a bull, c 1925.

A snapshot photograph of American cowboys branding a young bull, taken by an unknown photographer in about 1925. This photograph of a working ranch shows a bull lassoed and brought down by two mounted cowboys. The brand is burnt into the skin on the animal with a branding iron. The costume of the American cowboy has remained more or less unchanged from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. Hollywood and television have helped to mythologise and fix the image of the cowboy. Originally a shooting term, the word 'snapshot' was first linked with photography in the late 1850s, when it was used to describe a photograph taken with a brief exposure. Over time, snapshot came to mean any amateur photograph taken with a simple camera. The origins of popular photography can be traced back to George Eastman's [1854-1932] introduction of the first Kodak camera in 1888. Snapshots are informal, personal records of everyday life and experiences.