Eight Seconds: Legacy In Motion

Freshly expanded and resequenced, McClellan’s beloved photobook chronicling Black American cowboy culture returns to print

Ivan McClellan’s Eight Seconds is the result of more than a decade spent living inside Black cowboy culture. What began as an introduction to the Black rodeo in 2015 has become a sustained artistic collaboration built on trust and curiosity. Moving across the United States with his camera, McClellan makes intimate portraits of a community where individualism, place, style and athleticism converge, and where a new generation is reshaping the image of the American West in real time. The title refers to how bull riding is scored, but here it speaks to an interval in time where life and death are at stake. Like the cowboys he photographs, McClellan works in a space that demands total presence, where the connections to animals and land meet to create moments of universal appeal. These photographs move beyond the rodeo arena to foreground a culture that demands individuality and self-expression. The result is a contemporary language that builds a new myth out of the old West. First published to great acclaim in 2024, the second edition of Eight Seconds is newly sequenced and includes 91 previously unpublished images as well as a new introduction and foreword.
Ivan McClellan (born 1982) is a photojournalist based in Portland, Oregon. His work has been featured in Andscape and Fast Company. As a designer, he has led projects for Nike, Adidas, Disney and the US National Soccer Team.

Ivan McClellan (né en 1982 à Kansas City) est un photojournaliste et un designer basé à Portland, dans l'Oregon. McClellan a collaboré avec des marques de western comme Wrangler, Stetson et Ariat pour promouvoir les athlètes de rodéo, les éleveurs et les agriculteurs noirs sur leurs plateformes. Il a également dirigé des projets créatifs pour Apple et Instagram. McClellan a exposé dans des musées et des galeries américaines, notamment au Booth Museum Griffin Museum of Photography, et son travail a fait l'objet d'une première exposition monographique au Buffalo Bill Center of the West en 2022. Il a a été largement publié notamment dans le Washington Post, ESPN, Elle, i-D, Dazed, etc.