#queerrodeo

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Congrats @lukegilford & @damiani_books on this extensive review of forthcoming 'National Anthem: America’s Queer Rodeo' — releasing December but available for pre-order now 😊 🏳️‍🌈⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ @aylaangelos writes: With an aim to break down America’s longstanding “tribal dichotomies” with promising hope and resilience, think of 'National Anthem' as a great reminder for us all – one that involves inspiration to expand and disrupt these binaries and conservative viewpoints. “This is a nation that is constantly failing as well as exceeding its own mythology,” says Luke. “I hope this project is a testament to the multiplicity of identities that intersect here – all of whom are deserving of respect, dignity, safety and love.”⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ “One of my close friends in the queer rodeo community is a black, queer, gender non-conforming bull rider,” he finally goes on to say. “They said to me simply: ‘If I show up here, I’m a cowboy.’ And they are accepted as such, with no questions asked. To me this project is a way of memorializing the rare beauty in that.”⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Text by Luke Gilford, Janet Mock, Matthew Riemer & Leighton Brown, Drew Sawyer, Mary L. Gray.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ #lukegilford #americananthem #queerrodeo #gayrodeo #transrodeo #rodeo #lgbtq https://www.instagram.com/p/CGIQwrWpuft/?igshid=1gccplwzixjfq

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More great press for 'Luke Gilford: National Anthem: America’s Queer Rodeo'! Congrats @damiani_books !!⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ @daleberningsawa writes:⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ …Gilford was born in Colorado, and grew up watching his dad ride in snakeskin boots, a giant silver buckle gleaming at his waist. He gradually realized that he didn’t fit into this world, though. “The mainstream rodeo world is, you know, obviously, very homophobic and conservative. There’s so much machismo. It’s racist.”⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ So this chance encounter with a bunch of people who’d managed to do what seemed impossible to him was as exciting as it was discombobulating. “We all know what a rodeo is,” he says, “and we all know what queer is. We don’t think of them going together.” He set about exploring how they might.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ The result is 'National Anthem,' Gilford’s first photographic monograph – and, to his mind, a timely musing on the state of America. “We’re taught in school to recite the national anthem every morning. It has this aura of promise. But as we grow older, we realize this promise is kind of a myth. What I think is really beautiful, and so inspiring, about the queer rodeo community is that it brings back that aura of promise. It embraces both ends of the American cultural spectrum: people living on the land, but who are also queer.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ “To begin with, it was very personal, a way to reconnect with a side of myself I had suppressed. But I started the project around the time Trump was elected. So it has felt really urgent to work on a wider scale beyond that personal level, to focus on what we all should be talking about and working towards…”⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Read the full review via linkinbio.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ @lukegilford #lukegilford #queerrodeo #gayrodeo #nationalanthem #igra #internationalgayrodeoassociation https://www.instagram.com/p/CFm9MUAp23G/?igshid=hhs2wosxsb0j

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Great advance praise for 'Luke Gilford: National Anthem: America’s Queer Rodeo,' forthcoming in December from @damiani_books !!⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Growing up in the mountains of Evergreen, Colorado, photographer Luke Gilford inherited his love of the rodeo from his father, who built their home and filled it with memorabilia from his years as a rodeo champion and later a judge, including snakeskin boots, Stetson hats, and giant silver and gold champion belt buckles.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ “Our family’s stories are visual but they were also communicated in the body – in this case through my father’s injuries and his scars. Our stories are a way for us to make sense of our past and to create our future, too,” says Gilford, who will throw his hat in the ring with the December 1 publication of 'National Anthem: America’s Queer Rodeo,' a collection of portraits made at the International Gay Rodeo Association (IGRA), the organizing body for the LGBTQ cowboy and cowgirl communities in North America.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ Read Gilford's statement in @anothermagazine via linkinbio.⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ @lukegilford #queerrodeo #gayrodeo #lukegilford #nationalanthem #igra #internationalgayrodeoassociation https://www.instagram.com/p/CFj1jpJp4rZ/?igshid=13w26t05h1bnp