“When I show up at events I make sure I’m coming in with good energy,” says photographer Ivan McClellan in and interview with the Phoblographer. “I have to be open and genuinely curious about the people I’m shooting. It takes a lot of work and time to get there, but when I do, everything flows, and people are open and collaborative in making portraits.” Ivan often starts without a camera in his hand before mustering up the courage to ask people for their images. All of this is super important for a part of American Culture that isn’t told about very often: the Black Rodeo.
All images by Ivan McClellan. Used with permission. You can follow his work on Instagram @eightsecs. Eight Seconds: Black Rodeo Culture is his recent book, and you can check it out here. Pick the book up on Amazon.
Much of Rodeo culture that we know of can be summarized and seen in various Hollywood references. But perhaps the one that sticks out the most to me in recent times was in the movie, Borat. Those renditions are seriously lacking melanin. Ivan thankfully isn’t the only one trying to make people aware of the different sides of rodeo culture. Years ago, we featured photographer Rory Doyle, who profiled the Delta Hill Riders — a group of African American cowboys. “In America, the cowboy archetype is a heroic white figure — think John Wayne,” Rory told us in a previous interview. “But I felt there was a story to share here, one that embodies rural Mississippi, but also one that touches a history that reaches across our entire country. From the very beginning, the riders here accepted me, and they were excited to have someone document them for the first time.”
There are even more sides to this than we thought, too. Photographer Chris Schmid has spent time documenting the gouchos: the cowboys of South America.
All of this is much different from the more artistic captures of someone like Stefano Galli, who used a panning and slow-shutter speed technique to record the chaos of rodeos.
So why isn’t Black Rodeo Culture more prolific? Well, Ivan says that it’s for several reasons. “In film and storytelling at best it’s because of laziness, using the same trope of a white man saving the day for generations,” he explains to us. “At worst it’s intentional erasure of Black identities in the West. I’m heartened to see this changing with films like The Harder They Fall and Beyonce’s album Cowboy Carter.” With this project, Ivan wants to bring more representation to the front. Ultimately, Ivan tells us he wants to see more black folks in cowboy hats.
Ivan started out in photography in 2009, where he borrowed a friend’s DSLR on a trip to Istanbul. “”…I went there as a pure beginner and used the camera as a tool to interact with people that I wouldn’t have interacted with otherwise,” he recounts. “I made magical frames on that trip and have been chasing that energy ever since.” These days, Ivan makes his magic with a Fujifilm GFX 100 II and a GF 45-100mm f4 lens. Sometimes he uses a Fuji XE-1 with a Zeiss 32mm f1.8 Touit. He doesn’t do a lot of post-production, either.
Most of all, all this work isn’t stuff that you’d typically see AI images present to you. Ivan feels like we’re at a door of a sea of change in how art is created. “It must feel like portrait painters when the camera was invented,” he expresses. “The artists probably thought it was the end of painting altogether and that their livelihoods would be destroyed. But the technology forced innovation and abstract modes of thinking and I think that’s what will happen with AI.” Ultimately, he feels humans will find new ways to express themselves.
AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT
The Phoblographer works with human photographers to verify that they’ve actually created their work through shoots. These are done by providing us assets such as BTS captures, screenshots of post-production, extra photos from the shoot, etc. We do this to help our readers realize that this is authentically human work. Here’s what this photographer provided for us.
