Queer rodeo portraits that challenge American myths of masculinity

The word ’rodeo’ is so powerfully evocative, immediately conjuring the smells of hot leather, sweat, and animal, and dusty scenes lit by the sun rising from behind a mountain range. Born in Colorado, photographer Luke Gilford was raised in this machismo world of the wild west against the backdrop of the Rockies by his rodeo-riding father. While he was drawn to what he describes as the “magnetism” and pageantry of the rodeo, Gilford felt alienated by the patriarchal, homophobic ideologies permeating rural America. 

It wasn’t until years later, when he encountered the International Gay Rodeo Association, that Gilford was struck with “the electric charge of belonging”. As the organising body for the LGBTQ+ cowboy and cowgirl communities in North America, the IGRA provides a welcoming space for otherness amid what has traditionally been a hostile environment for anyone not adhering to the standard archetypes of mainstream rodeo culture. 

Gilford’s debut solo exhibition National Anthem (at New York’s SN37 Gallery) features larger-than-life portraits of IGRA members dominating the gallery space. His images rearticulate this icon of independence, self-sufficiency and perfect masculinity that looms so large in the nation’s self-mythologising consciousness. In a conversation over email, Gilford tells us: “Discovering the IGRA reinvented the mythology of the ‘American cowboy’ for me – transforming it into one that is inclusive of all genders, sexualities, and races.” Throughout this series of tender portraits, Gilford depicts an expanded vision of rodeo life and who is allowed to participate in this old realm of American tradition.

Take a look through the gallery, above, for a glimpse of National Anthem. Below, we talk to Luke Gilford about his lifelong relationship with the rodeo, disrupting the dichotomies at the heart of American life, and the allure of the International Gay Rodeo Association.

What are your enduring memories of rodeo from childhood? 

Luke Gilford: Most of my earliest memories are at the rodeo with my father. I was born in Colorado, my dad was a participant, and later a judge in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association. I vividly remember his giant silver belt buckle, his snakeskin boots, and the majestic horses in golden light, illuminating his rides. There’s an indelible magnetism to the rodeo – it brings the mythological side of America out into the open air. The rodeo is a spectacle oozing with displays of power and vulnerability. It is a wash for the senses: peaks of pastel geographies, sunsets, adrenaline, courtship, the sounds and smells of animals, sweat, blood, barbecue, denim, hairspray, alcohol, skin and dirt.

What aspects of that world did you find alienating?

Luke Gilford: Although the mainstream rodeo is in many ways the West’s traditional form of drag performance, it can also be incredibly homophobic. Rural America, as an ideal, is by and large a patriarchal, Christian, white domain – still hostile to anything that is not that. Nature and rural life – which is not inherently exclusive, but open – becomes caught up in that fixated identity. Growing up as ‘other’ in rural or suburban America is to live with constant threats of violence and pressure to conform. Even though there are many aspects of Western culture that I love, I didn’t feel comfortable pursuing it in the same way my father did.

“The rodeo is a spectacle oozing with displays of power and vulnerability... sunsets, adrenaline, courtship, the sounds and smells of animals, sweat, blood, barbecue, denim, hairspray, alcohol, skin, and dirt” – Luke Gilford

Please could you share with us your first encounter with the IGRA and the impression it made on you? 

Luke Gilford: In 2016 I was at a Pride event in San Francisco and met some queer cowboys who were visiting from New Mexico. They invited me to a rodeo outside of Albuquerque the following weekend and I impulsively booked a ticket. It was unlike anything I’d experienced before – it felt like a revelation or uncovering a shining beacon of exception.

How would you describe the spirit of the IGRA?

Luke Gilford: Warm, welcoming and non-judgmental. If you show up, you’re treated like family. The IGRA provides the LGBTQ+ community with a unique opportunity to connect with other queer people who are interested in Western and rodeo culture, including POC who often feel unwelcome in the almost exclusively caucasian mainstream rodeo circuit. The IGRA rodeos are a safe space for anyone on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, including allies and supporters.

What do you feel it represents as an institution? What’s its place and function in American life?

Luke Gilford: The IGRA proves that rural American queerness is not just a myth, but a living, breathing reality. I think one of the greatest powers of the queer rodeo is its ability to disrupt America’s dichotomies that cannot contain who we really are –liberal versus conservative, metropolitan versus rural, ‘coastal elite’ versus ‘middle America’. It’s incredibly rare to find a community that actually embraces both ends of the spectrum. To me, the stars of National Anthem help return the aura of promise to America.

In what ways did discovering the IGRA reinvent your relationship with rodeo?

Luke Gilford: Discovering the IGRA reinvented the mythology of the ‘American cowboy’ for me – transforming it into one that is inclusive of all genders, sexualities, and races. It’s so overdue for that iconography to be more relevant to the world we actually live in.

I love your words, ‘the electric charge of belonging’! Was that a transformative moment or a gradual dawning feeling? Could you please tell us about that moment or process?

Luke Gilford: The electric charge of belonging was a sensation I felt almost immediately. I felt welcomed as both a participant and observer, and that feeling only became more profound and meaningful as I kept returning to the rodeos again and again over several years, deepening the friendships and building more trust and intimacy.

“The IGRA proves that rural American queerness is not just a myth, but a living, breathing reality’ – Luke Gilford

I love the way the individuals in the portraits really meet our gaze. Why did it feel important to display them on this large scale? 

Luke Gilford: National Anthem celebrates the typically invisible queer bodies living their lives, discovering themselves, and falling in love within rural landscapes. I think they expand what it means to be an American as well as what it means to be queer in both subtle and profound ways. I wanted to reflect that with larger-than-life prints that directly confront viewers. The beauty and dignity of the subjects are made visible in a manner that is so often reserved for only celebrities and models.

What would you most hope people will take away with them after spending time with these portraits?

Luke Gilford: I want to represent queer joy and for viewers to feel that joy viscerally, while also reminding people of the very real and ongoing presence of danger that queer bodies face daily, simply for existing. To me, National Anthem proves that there is power and beauty in survival. We often think of survival as something that just happens to us, or that we are blessed with. But through creating this work I came to think of survival as a deliberate and creative force. It requires constant work to sustain and protect against all odds. 

Luke Gilford’s National Anthem is on display at SN37 Gallery until August 28 2022