Ivan McClellan - Eight Seconds: Black Rodeo Culture

128 pages
Edited by Miss Rosen
Foreword by Charles Sampson
Photograph(s) by Ivan McClellan
23.8 x 29.2 cm
Language: English
Hardback
Publisher: Damiani
2024

Eight Seconds: Black Rodeo Culture, the first book by Ivan McClellan, offers an inside look at Black cowboy culture across the United States in the 21st century, creating a bridge between present and past through sports, community, and love of the land. In 2015, photographer Ivan McClellan attended the Roy LeBlanc Invitational in Oklahoma, the country’s longest-running Black rodeo, at the invitation of Charles Perry, director and producer of The Black Cowboy. Over the next decade, McClellan embarked on a journey across the nation, crafting a multi-layered look at contemporary Black rodeo culture for the new book, Eight Seconds. Whether photographing teen cowgirl sensation Kortnee Solomon at her family’s Texas stables, capturing bull riding champion Ouncie Mitchell in action, or kicking it with the Compton Cowboys at their Los Angeles ranch, McClellan chronicles the extraordinary athletes who keep the magic and majesty of the “Old West” alive with high-octane displays of courage, strength, and skill. 

The book’s title refers to the sport of bull riding — athletes must stay on a bull for eight seconds while it bucks and the more hectic the ride, the higher they score.