Photographer Ivan McClellan grew up watching Western movies and Bonanza reruns, and going to rodeos with his family in Kansas City. But as a kid, he never saw earnest depictions of cowboys that looked like him.
âI didnât know a thing about Black cowboys,â says McClellan in a recent interview with the Mercury. Any depictions of Black cowboys he did see were as âa punchlineââSinbad in The Cherokee Kid, or Cowboy Curtis on Pee Weeâs Playhouse. âWhat if a Black guy was a cowboy? It was like a joke.â
That changed six years ago when McClellan, who now lives in Portland, went to Okmulgee's Invitational Rodeo in Oklahoma, which is billed as the nationâs oldest African American rodeo. McClellan was invited by Portland filmmaker Charles Perry, who made a documentary about the rodeo. He was skeptical at first, but that changed when he arrived at the rodeo on a 105 degree day, and âsaw Black people everywhere.â
âThere were thousands of Black people,â McClellan says. âSome of them were in Western wear, some of them were riding horses in basketball shorts and Jordans. The women were wearing long acrylic nails and braids, and there was hip-hop and Gospel music playing. It felt so familiar to meâit felt like a culture Iâd grown up in⌠It felt comfortable. It felt like something that I knew, even though it was the Western world.â
McClellan took his first photos of Black cowboys (which he uses as a gender-neutral term) that day, and heâs been documenting them ever since, at rodeos and farms and ranches across the country. His work is currently on display at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, a Smithsonian-affiliated cluster of museums in Cody, Wyoming, which is known as the âRodeo Capital of the World.â
âItâs beyond my expectation of where this would go,â McClellan says. âI started [taking these photos] to be close to Black folks, because that wasnât something I was getting a lot of at the time.â
Titled Eight Seconds: Black Cowboys in America, McClellanâs exhibit features work from throughout the last six years. Its centerpiece is a 13-foot high print of âThree Kings,â one of the first Black cowboy photos he took.
âTheyâre three young cowboys on their horsesâthey just look so cool, and theyâre in Western wear, starched button-down shirts and cowboy hats,â he says. âItâs not until you really look at it that you notice the middle rider has a diamond stud earring in his ear. Youâre like âwait a minute, this is something else going on here⌠this isnât just a pure Western photo.ââ
That dynamicâWestern tradition mixed with modernity and Black cultureâis seen throughout McClellanâs work.
âI try every single time I go to a rodeo to throw away preconceived notions and just come there open,â he says. âBeyond that, itâs just seeing what I see and being curious about it, and thrilled by it. Every time is different.â
Some photos feature Black women who participate in barrel racing, a rodeo event in which competitors must ride their horses around barrels in a particular pattern, and are timed to see who is fastest. Some of the women compete âwith long braids and flashy bedazzled hats in hot-pink colors, full faces of makeup and jewelry.â
âThey are so stylish, and so grand,â he adds. âBut when you see their athleticism, and see they can control a horse going 40 miles per hour, and complete a course going around the arena in 15 secondsâthe style is not the point. Theyâre athletes, but theyâve just got this flair and style thatâs an extension of the culture that comes along with it.â
In addition to rodeo events, McClellan also captures Black cowboys in their everyday livesâin their homes, and on their farms and ranches. Heâs photographed a few Black cowboys in Oregon, one in Bend, and one in Hillsboro, but says theyâre few and far between here, and by nature they have to be âresilient.â At mostly white rodeos in the Pacific Northwest, McClellan has seen Black competitors subjected to both veiled and overt racism.
âIâve seen guys come up and say weird things to them, and Iâve heard the announcers on the PA system say things that are just flat-out racist,â he says. âIt just goes off their back, like water on a duck.â
The Buffalo Bill Center of the West is named for an 1800s white cowboy whose fictionalized image was foundational in constructing the myth of the cowboy in the American imagination. When the center reached out to him about an exhibit, McClellan wasnât sure if he was ready to show his work there. But ultimately, he couldnât pass up the historic opportunity.
âTo have my work there is so poignant and relevant, and itâs so disruptive to this icon,â McClellan says. âIâm so proud and overwhelmed to have it there.â
You can check out more of McClellanâs work on his Instagram. If youâre planning to be in Wyoming between now and January 7, 2022, be sure to visit the exhibit.