Eight Seconds: Legacy in Motion: Photographs by Ivan McClellan

Eight Seconds: Legacy in Motion captures more than a decade of Black cowboy culture, exploring identity, style and athleticism.
About this Event

Join us for a conversation with Ivan McClellan to celebrate his new book, a stunning monograph, documenting African-American cowboy culture. He will be in conversation with Maria Soccor, followed by a signing.

PLEASE NOTE: RSVPs are encouraged but not required. Seating is limited and will be first come, first served. Doors open at 5:30 pm.

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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published to great acclaim in 2024, the second edition of Eight Seconds is newly sequenced and includes 91 previously unpublished images as well as a new introduction and foreword.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 (b. 1982, Kansas City, KS) is a photojournalist and designer based in Portland, Oregon. His work reveals marginalized aspects of black culture and challenges broad assumptions and myths about racial identity in America.

Maria Soccor is an award-winning director, producer, actress, and founder of Maria Soccor Productions, whose work explores culture, identity, and socially relevant stories. Her acclaimed documentary Lords of BSV earned 13 international awards, and her film Kicks marked her Cannes Film Festival debut. She continues to develop and direct ambitious documentary projects, including Freestyle Music: The Legacy, Tillie, and Gloss and Grit: The Man Who Made Art Pop.