YEEHAW! The annual 8 Seconds Juneteenth Rodeo (@eightsecs ) returns to Portland June 21st. This event supports Black Western athletes and the cultural heritage of Black cowboys and cowgirls. There’s still tickets left but not for long. Follow @eightsecs for all the details! #ThisIsPortland #LovePortland
The cowboy was never just white. Historians know this. The cowboys themselves know this. Anyone that watched Get Out knows this. One in four cowboys in the post-Civil War West was Black. But somewhere between the dime novels and the Hollywood westerns and the Marlboro billboards, that truth got just quietly edited out.
Ivan McClellan found it again. On a hot Oklahoma afternoon in the grandstands of a Black rodeo in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by barbecue smoke and blues basslines and kids chasing each other through the dirt, he saw a story that nobody was telling and decided to tell it.
But here’s what makes Ivan different from someone who just shows up with a camera and good intentions. He’s a designer, too.
So when he decided to document this world, he stripped out every western typography cliché, obsessed over the light, designed his own belt buckles, and built an aesthetic that was completely his own. We were so excited by this idea, that Ivan, instead of seeking to recreate the myth, is helping to make a new one. One that looked like the truth.
And then he went further. He saw how hard these riders were working for almost nothing in prize money and decided that had to change too. Because documentation without advocacy is just observation.
Ivan’s project is called Eight Second Rodeo; a decade-long reclamation of something that has always been there.
Recorded from our sessions at Arlyn Studios for Americana First at SXSW.
Year 4! Tickets on sale now!.
Prices range from $30-$170
Event: Sunday, June 21 2026
Community hours: 3pm - 7pm
Rodeo: 7pm - 10pm
VIP package will include: floor access during the show with VIP bar on the floor, cowboy meet and greet on the dirt at a TBD time before the show, VIP lanyard.
Best night of the year, can't wait to see y'all there!
Wet proof of the next book, Eight Seconds: Legacy in Motion 🙏🏾🙏🏾
What a journey this has all been.
11 years a part of this culture, 8 years here posting my work on Instagram, 4 years into throwing my own rodeo.
From this page a kickstarter birthed my first attempt of a book, which led to an official, Damiani-published book in 2024. That book, Eight Seconds: Black Rodeo Culture sold out worldwide, and because of that, the second official book is being published this June.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Ivan
For over a decade, Ivan McClellan has immersed himself in the heart of Black cowboy culture, capturing the powerful intersection of style, grit, and athleticism. Far removed from the clichés of the Old West, his work reveals a living, evolving redefinition of the American frontier.
Following the major publishing success of 𝐸𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑆𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑠: 𝐵𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑅𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑜 𝐶𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 in 2024, this second edition is newly sequenced, presenting 91 previously unpublished images.
𝐸𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑆𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑠: 𝐿𝑒𝑔𝑎𝑐𝑦 𝑖𝑛 𝑀𝑜𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 is available for pre-order exclusively at damianibooks.com 🔗
