"Through my family I grew up in the rodeo world, and while this world is familiar to me, I never felt completely at home there. In the rodeo community, you pray, sing the National Anthem about our great country, talk about the Republicans in office and how we hope they’ll fix things, all before any cowboy touches the arena dirt. To this world, my sexuality is a taboo. Through the Gate, In the Arena reveals a different side of the rodeo, one that is little known; it was only until I began this project that I had found that gay rodeo existed. While I still am happy going to straight rodeos, the disappointment in those years is what drives me to create the work in this project. I always wondered if any of those cowboys/cowgirls were like me when they rode a bull or ran barrels.

The title Through the Gate, In the Arena comes from the idea of placing yourself through the chutes behind the scenes of the gay rodeo while also metaphorically calling to the difficulty of everyday life as a queer. The action of stepping through the gate is only the beginning; the arena has the possibility of fun, terror, and worry alongside being watched throughout your duration in it.

Using my experience both studying and working with queer art and documentary photography, I focus on the happenings of the gay rodeo scene while acknowledging the participants as individuals. Continuing this project within the next few years, I will begin to travel to people’s homes and document some of their lives when they’re not at the rodeos and see where and if that fits into this project."