Gay cowboy pictures

The synonyms ’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 territory for otherness amid what has traditionally been a aggressive 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 Ga

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