‘I saw hip-hop street style and cowboy culture merge. I felt I belonged’: Ivan McClellan on his images of America’s Black cowboys
For a man who spends a lot of time around horses, Ivan McClellan isn’t much of a rider. “The last feedback I got was that I sit on a horse like a sack of potatoes,” he says. “I’m also a big fella, so people always put me on the biggest horse they have, some giant dinosaur of a horse. A fall from that height would be devastating, so I’m nervous. The horse knows I’m nervous. There’s a lot of work I need to do.”
Since 2015, when McClellan first attended the Roy LeBlanc Invitational in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, “the Super Bowl of Black rodeos”, the US photographer’s name has become synonymous with Black cowboy culture in the country.
“It was a culture I knew nothing about,” McClellan says. “I saw young men riding horses around with no shirt on, wearing diamond stud earrings, gold chains and Jordans. I saw women with braids and long acrylic nails riding 50mph. People were frying chicken, barbecuing, dancing … There was gospel music, R&B and hip-hop in the air. It was an incredible, otherwordly experience.”
For McClellan, who grew up in Kansas City but moved to Portland, Oregon in 2011, Black cowboy culture provided a sense of community he’d been lacking. “I saw all these Black folks who were so cool, with hip-hop culture and street style and cowboys – which I loved since I was a kid – all merged together,” he says. “I felt I belonged. It’s changed my life. Finding this subject matter and getting obsessed with it has been the most rewarding artistic journey of my entire life. I’ve made lifelong friendships and it has become part of my identity.”
McClellan’s obsession has taken him to events across the US, from Nevada to Tennessee. His photos have been collected in his new book Eight Seconds: Black Cowboy Culture, named after the time a bull rider must stay mounted on a bucking bull to achieve a qualified ride. Not everyone is happy for the white cowboy archetype to be disrupted, however. “I got a mysterious phone call the other day where somebody said: ‘Hey, is this the monkey rodeo? I want to open a crack booth,’” McClennan says. “There’s a simmering hatred that I have to just ignore, because for as many people who are offended by talking about Black cowboys and Black rodeo, there are 10 times as many who are thrilled.”
As Charles Sampson, the first African American cowboy to win a world championship in professional rodeo, writes in the book’s introduction, the history of Black cowboys has been “all but forgotten. Legendary western figures such as Bass Reeves, Bill Pickett, Stagecoach Mary and Nat Love have been left out of films and history books.”
“I think it’s due to laziness and what’s marketable,” McClellan says. “The Hollywood machine is about getting people to the movie theatre. I love westerns. The archetype of the noble white cowboy is one I love. I just want to expand that and say there’s more going on.”
McClennan, 41, started out photographing weddings, fashion and street photography before immersing himself in Black cowboy culture. He divides his time between photography and a full-time job as a designer for Adobe Lightroom photography software.
He has also become a rodeo boss, having organised the first 8 Seconds Juneteenth Rodeo in Portland in 2023, which is set to return this summer. By working on events such as this, he is hoping to encourage support for Black cowboy culture, which he sees dwindling across the country. “It has a very difficult future,” he says. “It’s super-expensive to get into ranching or stock-contracting, and when you have a population of 35,000 people across America who are Black and participate in western culture, it’s really noticeable that you see fewer each year. I feel a sense of urgency. To lose this culture would be a tragedy.”
Eight Seconds: Black Rodeo Culture by Ivan McClellanis publishedbyDamiani (£40).
Another country: five images from Ivan McClellan’s Eight Seconds
Keary Hines, Prairie View, Texas, 2021 (main image, top)“Hines is a calfroper. He has struggled, like a lot of Black cowboys, to support his lifestyle and compete at the level he wants to. He’s the definition of cowboy cool with his swagger, the rope around his shoulder, and two horses that he’s completely in control of.”
Pony Express, Okmulgee, Oklahoma, 2021“I’m in the arena for this photo, standing on the dirt. These two riders are competing in an event called Pony Express, which is a baton relay race on horseback around the arena,” says McClellan. “I’m too close in this photo, so I’m a little bit nervous. The photo is blurry and technically a mess, but it ended up being the cover of my book, because it’s just got so much energy.”
Cowboy prayer, Okmulgee, Oklahoma, 2020“This is a Pony Express team called Southside. The beauty of Okmulgee’s rodeo is that it starts exactly at sundown, so the lighting is just perfect all the time. In this photo, the skies are interesting – the sun has just gone down and there’s a pink haze. The riders are about to go and compete, they’re all on horseback and holding hands to pray for their safety. Pony Express is a dangerous sport so this prayer is really serious for them.”
Ja’Dayia Kursh, Oklahoma, 2021“This is a cowgirl called Ja’Dayia Kursh. She’s got a little bit of dirt on her knee, which is the only indication that she just got bucked off a horse. I love her swagger and her energy. I love that she’s still posing like a rodeo queen, even though she just did something completely badass.”
Dantez and Floss, Okmulgee, Oklahoma, 2020“Dantez is the man standing and Floss is the one on horseback. They are father and son, and they’re on a Pony Express team called the Country Boyz. I meet them every single year at the rodeo at this exact spot at this exact time. This is where they park, saddle up their horses and get ready for the competition.”
Finding this subject matter and getting obsessed with it has been the most rewarding artistic journey of my life