(CNN)Tim Richmond's fascination with the American West began as a boy in England, watching cowboy movies on TV. "The film 'Hud' with Paul Newman in 1963 or 'Bad Day at Black Rock' with Spencer Tracy ... and 'Junior Bonner' with Steve McQueen as a sort of rodeo rider," said Richmond. "It seemed like another world from sort of drab England." When he turned 17, Richmond headed to the United States, where he spent three months hitchhiking his way through the Western states. "I just wanted to see things like I'd seen in films," he said. Richmond captures the solitude and expanse of places like central Wyoming and Montana in his latest photography project, "Last Best Hiding Place," which releases in book format in June in the United Kingdom and in the fall in the United States.
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Photographer Tim Richmond spent three months hitchhiking his way through the Western states
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His images include people and places in faraway towns in Montana, South Dakota and Utah
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See hi-resolution photos from Richmond's "Last Best Hiding Place" series here
Richmond began the project seven years ago as the financial crisis began to unfold across the @placeholder.