Photographer Luke Gilford, known for his photo spreads featuring celebrities such as Jane Fonda, Lizzo and Christina Aguilera, has just released his latest project: a photo book centered around the queer rodeos of North America.Gilford, who specializes in homoerotic and celebrity photography, stumbled on the queer rodeo scene while attending a Pride event in California in 2016.“The mainstream rodeo world is, you know, obviously, very homophobic and conservative,” Gilford told The Guardian. “There’s so much machismo.
It’s racist.” For Gilford, then, the discovery of the more inclusive queer rodeo scene offered a kind of intrigue. “We all know what a rodeo is,” he observes, “and we all know what queer is.