CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 4/18/2024

A birthright and a legacy in Ivan McClellan's 'Eight Seconds: Black Rodeo Culture'

Featured image, titled “Rodeo Queen, Okmulgee, Oklahoma,” is reproduced from Oregon photojournalist Ivan McClellan’s critically acclaimed new release, Eight Seconds: Black Rodeo Culture, published by Damiani. McClellan concludes the book with a letter to the culture that has taken hold of him and changed his life. He writes, “Cowboy culture has always been synonymous with hard times, and I have seen it firsthand in my journey with you. Losing friends and acquaintances along the way, sometimes taking the last photos of people before they were killed or arrested. This life attracts folks with the grit to push past the odds and continue, despite their trauma and pain. When I was young, I could never envision myself as an old man, but now I can quite clearly see myself as an old rodeo boss, perched on the fence, drenched in sweat under the blazing sun, and watching Eight Second [bull] rides until night falls and zydeco music battles the crickets for my ear. As I pass on this legacy to my children, I’m humbled by the realization that it’s a treasure trove that I never knew I had the right to possess, an inheritance lost to me, has been preserved for them. I’m overjoyed that when my kids color a cowboy in their coloring book, they color him brown. I hope they grow up loving you as I have, as this is their birthright, their legacy.”