This photo essay, commissioned by ESPN, traces the quiet dignity and defiant grace of Black cowboys at the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo. Through portraiture and atmosphere, the work reveals a tradition often erased—where culture, identity, and legacy braid together in dust, denim, and discipline. More than spectacle, it is memory in motion, a reclamation of space and story.
By immersing in this storied subculture, the series gestures toward a larger truth: that every community—no matter how obscured or overlooked—threads its own beauty into the fabric of history. To witness these lives is to glimpse a deeper, more expansive view of American mythmaking—and of our shared humanity.
By immersing in this storied subculture, the series gestures toward a larger truth: that every community—no matter how obscured or overlooked—threads its own beauty into the fabric of history. To witness these lives is to glimpse a deeper, more expansive view of American mythmaking—and of our shared humanity.
