I have been interested in Western culture and cowboys from an early age. Growing up in residential area of Seattle, my first exposure to rodeo came from television and books. I attended my first gay rodeo at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in 1988.

The sport, camaraderie, and atmosphere of this first rodeo experience transformed me. I was completely drawn to it and I had to be a part of it. I wanted to be a cowboy. For the next six months, my best friend Gordon and I traveled to every gay rodeo in the Western United States. Gordon, a graphic designer, started wearing Western clothes on a daily basis. I got my first pair of Wranglers and a cowboy hat. I became friends with many of the cowboys. I started participating in gay rodeo’s “camp events:” goat dressing, steer decorating, the wild drag race. These events were fun, but I became more interested in the traditional rodeo events, particularly bull riding.

At my fifth rodeo, with the encouragement of my new cowboy friends, I rode my first steer. I fell off almost immediately, but I was hooked. At the next rodeo, I stayed on the steer and completed my ride. From the beginning, I brought my camera to all the rodeos, but as a rodeo competitor, I now had inside access. I could shoot close to the action-down on the arena floor and behind the chutes. I began photographing seriously as I got more involved. For the next four years. I competed and photographed at most of the gay rodeos in the West. By the beginning of the 1989 season, I successfully completed my first bull ride. A year later, I became the 1990 Bull Riding Champion of the Year at the International Gay Rodeo Association (IGRA) Finals in Phoenix. That was twenty years ago. Sometimes it’s hard to believe I was a bull rider, but I was able to be part of this rodeo world that I loved and I have the silver belt buckle to prove it. These photographs represent a very special time in my life. I guess I never really considered myself a true “cowboy.” In the back of my mind I was always an observer-the photographer. Many of the cowboys, my close friends, are no longer with us. This work has never been exhibited. I now want to share these images for two reasons: to memorialize these great experiences in gay rodeo and to honor the real cowboys who competed.

AWARDS
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2020
Magnet West, The Enduring Allure of the American West in Photography, Figge Art Museum,Davenport, IA

2019
Photographs from the Gay Rodeo 1988-1992, M. Rosetta Hunter Gallery, Seattle, WA

2019
Photographs from the Gay Rodeo1988-1992, Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK

2017
Photographs from the Gay Rodeo 1988-1992, Rapid City Art Center, Rapid City, MO

2017
Photographs from the Gay Rodeo 1988-1992, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA

2017
Photographs from the Gay Rodeo 1988-1992, University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond, OK

2016
Photographs from the Gay Rodeo 1988-1992, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA

2016
Photographs from the Gay Rodeo 1988-1992, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Kansas City, MO

2015
Photographs from the Gay Rodeo 1988-1992, University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ

2015
Photographs from the Gay Rodeo 1988-1992, University of Missouri Art Museum, St Louis, MO

2015
Photographs from the Gay Rodeo 1988-1992, Salina Art Center, Salinas, KS

2014
Photographs from the Gay Rodeo 1988-1992, Eiteljorg Museum, Indianapolis, IN