Eight Seconds: Legacy in Motion – Ivan McClellan on Black Cowboy Culture

In 2015, Ivan McClellan began researching cowboy culture. He discovered that Black people played a significant role in its history, yet few people knew it. He decided to change that through his craft, photography, starting with a tour of the cities and states across America where communities still practice and preserve the tradition.

Over the past decade, Ivan has moved from observer to an active participant in Black cowboy culture. He has documented it in two photobooks: Eight Seconds: Black Rodeo Culture (2024) and Black Rodeo Culture: Legacy in Motion (2026), both published by Damiani Books, and through a rodeo festival now in its third year.

In this conversation with Sugarcane, Ivan talks about his first encounter with Black cowboy heritage, the rodeo, Eight Seconds, and his work to preserve African-American cowboy culture.

Rejoice Anodo: Tell me about Black cowboy culture. It isn’t widely known or portrayed in media the way white cowboy culture is, yet from your work it seems Black people have an equal place in this history.

Ivan McClellan: Black folks have been cowboys for generations. Some of the earliest cowboys in America were Black, and after the Civil War, about one in four cowboys was Black. But you wouldn’t know that from watching Westerns or looking at how cowboy culture has been represented.

What’s exciting to me is that this isn’t just history. This is a living, breathing culture that’s been passed down from generation to generation. It’s got its own style, traditions, music, and community. It’s incredibly rich and vibrant, and it’s happening right now.

I feel lucky that I’ve been welcomed into this world and get to share it with people who might not otherwise know it exists. I want the whole world to see it.

RA: In your book and previous press features, you’ve said it never occurred to you that “Black” and “cowboy” belonged in the same sentence until you met Charles Perry. What was that moment like?

IM: When Charles first said “Black cowboy,” I was confused. I knew exactly what he was saying, but those two words had never gone together in my mind. Everything I knew about cowboys came from movies, and in those movies, cowboys were white.

Then I went to my first Black rodeo and saw thousands of Black people in cowboy hats, chaps, and starched shirts. It was surreal. Everything looked familiar, but I’d never seen it in my own culture before. And for everybody else there, it was just normal. This was their life.

RA:  Where and when was your first rodeo?

IM: My first rodeo was in 2015 in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, at the Roy LeBlanc Invitational Rodeo. Okmulgee is the capital of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and every year this little town would come alive for the rodeo. There was a parade downtown with lowriders, motorcycle clubs, four-wheelers, and Black horse clubs riding through the streets. People came from all over for it. It was so much more than a rodeo. It was a family reunion, a celebration of culture, and one of the wildest weekends you could imagine.

It was always sweltering hot. The humidity was so thick you could eat the air with a spoon. People were loose, having a good time, and the energy was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. The competition was extraordinary, but the culture surrounding it was even bigger.

The rodeo had been held in Okmulgee for about 70 years, but 2025 was its last year at that arena. It’s moved to another city now, and while I know it’ll find its own identity there, it won’t be the same. There was something special about everybody being together in that little town. I feel lucky I got to experience it for so many years and photograph it before it changed.

RA: Where did it go? Was the rodeo cancelled altogether, or moved to a new location? 

IM: It moved to Shawnee, Oklahoma. The rodeo is still happening, but it’s not the same. What made Okmulgee so special was the environment. Everybody was together in this little town, and the cowboys, families, and spectators were all mixing together. It was informal in the best way. I could walk in with my camera, spend the whole weekend with people, and photograph things as they happened. That’s where so much of the magic was for me.

I’m sure the rodeo will find its footing in Shawnee and become something special in its own way. But that version of Okmulgee, the one I got to experience and photograph for a decade, is gone. I’m grateful I was there to capture it.

RA: Did this experience inspire your own rodeo, or did it grow out of your own research into Black cowboy culture? Is preserving culture part of the goal? 

IM: I didn’t think about producing my own rodeo for years. I was just happy being around the culture, taking pictures, building relationships, and learning as much as I could. It probably took five or six years before I started thinking, maybe I could do this. Maybe I understand it well enough now to bring something new to it.

I wasn’t interested in recreating the rodeos I’d been attending. Those events are already special, and they have their own history and traditions. I wanted to do something different. I wanted to create a world-class production that felt like a Beyoncé concert, but with people on horseback. Big lights, incredible sound, music, and thousands of people in an arena in the middle of the city. I wanted people to feel the pride and excitement of this culture, even if they’d never been to a rodeo before. And I wanted the athletes to be treated like stars, with real opportunities to earn money doing what they love.

So in 2023, I decided to go for it. We had about six months to pull the whole thing together. I had no idea how hard it was going to be. We had to find dirt, build an arena, bring in livestock, sell tickets, and convince cowboys to come compete at an event that had never happened before. We sold out our first rodeo in Portland with about 2,200 people. It was messy, and we made plenty of mistakes, but we did it.

Now we’re in our fourth year, and we’ve produced six rodeos across Portland and Philadelphia. We’ve grown from that first crowd of 2,200 to more than 7,000 people coming to each show. The production has grown tremendously, but the vision is still the same. I want people to walk into 8 Seconds Rodeo and experience something they’ve never seen before. And I want the cowboys and cowgirls at the center of it all.

RA: When you say mistakes, what do you mean? 

IM: I had this big vision for what the rodeo was going to look and feel like, and that first year, we didn’t quite get there. I thought it was going to be this smooth, polished production, but there were a lot of rough edges. We’d have these long pauses in the middle of the show, things weren’t happening when they were supposed to, and I was learning in real time just how many moving pieces it takes to put on a rodeo.

At one point, we had a timing mix-up with one of the gates after a bull ride, and the cowboys had to rush in and help get the bull back where it needed to be. Thankfully nobody got hurt, but it was one of those moments where you realize how important it is to have the right people, the right systems, and everybody knowing exactly what they’re supposed to do.

Every year we’ve gotten better. We’ve brought in more experienced people, tightened up the production, and figured out how to put on the kind of show I imagined in the beginning. There’s still something new to learn every time, but when I look at where we started and what we’re doing now, it’s pretty incredible.

RA: What inspired the title of your book, Eight Seconds: Legacy in Motion? 

IM: Eight seconds is how long you have to stay on a bull to get a score. You’re sitting on a 2,000-pound animal, holding on with one hand, and in those eight seconds, you can win thousands of dollars, get seriously hurt, or even lose your life. There’s so much at stake in such a short amount of time. That’s where the name Eight Seconds came from, and it’s become the name of this whole body of work.

The subtitle, Legacy in Motion, is about the fact that Black cowboy culture isn’t just something that happened in the 1800s. People talk about Black cowboys in the past tense, after slavery and the Civil War, as though that history ended somewhere.

along the way. But these traditions have been passed down from generation to generation, and they’re still very much alive.

And we’re not just documenting that legacy. We’re helping build it. At every 8 Seconds Rodeo, we put $75,000 directly into the hands of our athletes. We pay every competitor a $500 appearance fee just for showing up, and we award $60,000 in prize money. That’s important to me because these cowboys and cowgirls put so much into their craft, and they deserve to be compensated like the professional athletes they are. I want a young kid watching our rodeo to see that there’s a future in this, that they can be proud of this culture and actually make a living doing what they love.

There are young cowboys and cowgirls in this book who are carrying that legacy forward and making it their own. They’re connected to their ancestors, but they’re also creating something that belongs to this moment. That’s what I wanted the title to reflect. This isn’t just a book about history. It’s about a culture that’s still moving, and we’re doing our part to make sure it keeps moving.

RA: Do you think that cowboy culture can become mainstream among the Black community, given the work you’ve done so far?

IM: I think it already has, in a lot of ways. You look at what Beyoncé did with Cowboy Carter, bringing Black cowboy culture onto some of the biggest stages in the world. People are paying attention now in a way they weren’t ten years ago. There’s a real excitement around it, and I think that’s a beautiful thing.

But I don’t think everybody needs to go buy a horse or start riding bulls for the culture to be embraced. Most people who love basketball aren’t basketball players. They go to games, wear the jerseys, follow their favorite athletes, and support the sport. I think cowboy culture can be the same way. You can love it, celebrate it, and be part of the community without ever setting foot on a horse.

And that’s a big part of what we’re doing with 8 Seconds Rodeo. We’re introducing people to these incredible athletes and giving audiences a way to connect with them. Some people come because they love rodeo, and others come because they’ve never seen anything like it before. Both are welcome.

I want the next generation of cowboys and cowgirls to have an audience that’s excited to see them compete and supports what they do. The culture has always been here. Now more people are getting the chance to experience it.

RA: Were there any misconceptions or stereotypes you encountered and deconstructed during your research?

IM: First, how people dressed. During the day you’d see people walking their horses in Nikes, basketball shorts, and tank tops, or no shirts at all, with gold chains and durags. I thought, “This is the way black cowboys dress!” They do, but when it’s time for the rodeo, they change their clothes into glistening, starched white shirts, fringes and sequins, chaps with fringes on the sides, and vests with logos all over. When it was time for the rodeo, the way people presented themselves was widely different than I expected, and a lot more like a traditional cowboy, with the swagger of a Black person. It’s a beautiful thing to see a Black body in motion. Seeing a Black man ride a horse is very different from seeing anyone else ride a horse.

Second, I thought that these cowboys listen to hip hop and R&B, like stereotypical mainstream Black culture. I came to learn that it’s completely acceptable and normal to listen to country music. I was in trucks with bull riders listening to George Strait and Clint Black and old country songs I thought we weren’t allowed to listen to. That gave me permission to start to explore country music and fashion for myself, and it’s now part of my identity.

RA: You could have chosen an art exhibition or a documentary. Why a book?

IM: The book feels accessible. A big gallery, which I would love to do as well, can feel exclusive. My goal was to create something that can live in every house around the world. For the price of the book, you can show it to your kids and family during holidays and say, “Look at this culture, look at these images, look how powerful this is.” Going to the Tate or MoMA takes more resources, and the experience is different. The book slows you down from the speed of the internet and social media. You can take your time with the photos and the details and environment I’m taking you into.

I love photo books. Reading them provides a sensory experience. Bringing the cowboys into that experience is a great honor, and I hope it lives on coffee tables across the world. Every Black household in America seems to have a picture of Martin Luther King, Jesus, and Malcom X, and I hope that Black cowboys can become just as ubiquitous in Black homes.

RA: Do you intend to expand how you’ve documented Black cowboy culture beyond the book?

IM: I go with it, as long as I feel like it’s what God wants me to do. I never intended to do shows in arenas with thousands of people, but the work took me there, and it’s a major part of how I express myself.

If the work takes me to film, we’ll do a film. If it takes me to recording an album, I’ll sing a cowboy album. It’s a matter of how long it’s interesting and creatively inspiring, and how long God want me to keep doing this. I don’t have any specific ambition or goals, and I never have. I just go to the next right thing.

RA: What would you like readers to gain from Eight Seconds as we approach the book signing on October 12?

IM: I think someone in London or Rome can come into the American South through this book and experience it. I tried to paint a clear picture of the environment where these cowboys exist and where I spend much of my time. The first pictures are of the land: a bull at sunset, a dirt country road through the woods, and an Indian paintbrush flower on the side of that road. I want people to be welcomed into a place where the sounds of the crickets are loud, the air is so humid and thick you eat it with a spoon, and the dust from the road almost chokes you when a diesel truck drives past. I want people to feel invited there and to experience it without booking a plane ticket to Oklahoma.

The other thing I want: as I’ve gotten familiar to these people, many of the cowboys in this book look right at you. The cover is an image of Kortnee Salmon, a cowgirl in Texas, staring right at the camera. It’s an invitation to be curious about her and her life, and it was a very intimate moment. I hope readers feel that connection and feel welcome through her gaze and the gazes of others. I have photographed a lot of people in the book, so it feels like documentary photography. That warmth is what I feel, and I want readers to feel it too.

The book signing for Eight Seconds: Legacy in Motion will be held at Rizzoli Bookstore in New York after a conversation with Maria Soccor on October 12, 2026.

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