Cowboy poetry and song add immersive Western themes to a photo exhibit in Sand City.

It’s not often that a photography exhibit opens its parameters to include music and poetry readings, but that’s just one of the touches that makes Images of the Old West stand out.

The exhibit is presented by Batista Moon Studio Photographers. In addition to Barbara Moon and Fernando Batista, local photographers Terrence Farrell, Juanita Griffin, Martha Hogan and Sylvia Gardner all have work on display.

“When we first got together to select a theme for this exhibit – almost three years ago, with interruptions because of the pandemic – we made a list of possibilities, and while many of them were intriguing, the common ground we found was the Old West,” Moon explains. “Most of us had traveled the West and captured images that spoke to us, and all of us have a past here on the West Coast, so we grew up with these images, the missions, the cattle in the fields, the cowboys, the history of annexed California here in Monterey. So there were no strangers to the Western theme, and it evoked nostalgia for all of us.”

Each of the photographers takes a unique approach to the theme. Griffin is passionate about travel and her photos show the breadth of her adventures; Hogan evokes the romantic ideals of the West, like cowboys around the campfire and long sunsets over spectacular vistas. The exhibit is curated with a well-honed eye for the rhythm, order and tempo of the work.

The exhibit also breaks traditional boundaries to acknowledge that the Western aesthetic is not only about stories told in images – it is also expressed through sound. To complement the photographers’ individual interpretations of the ideas and images that make the West a way of life, the exhibit also features thematic poetry and music on two successive Saturdays.

On Saturday, Feb. 4, Rags Rosenberg, who also goes by the name Rags and Bones, performs his music and poetry from 2-5pm. Carmel-based Rags has appeared at venues throughout the Central Coast, including at the Henry Miller Memorial Library in Big Sur.

Singer-songwriter Rose Merrill of the Violet Flame – whose resume includes the Cachagua Country Fair, as well as many local clubs and music venues – plays the following Saturday, Feb. 11.

IMAGES OF THE OLD WEST is on display 2-6pm Saturdays through Feb. 18, or by appointment. Sylvan Gallery, 613 Ortiz Ave. Unit A, Sand City. 200-3975, www.sylvan.gallery