(Above: Los Angeles Cowboys by Blake Little)

Exhibition explores the diverse and complex nature of individual and community identity in the West.

Photographer Blake Little captures the grit and determination of the gay rodeo circuit through images that explore a time-honored American tradition. Revealing the story in classic black-and-white imagery, Little’s photographs reveal scenes of camaraderie, identity and sport in an expansive redefinition of what a cowboy can be. Blake Little: Photographs from the Gay Rodeo opens December 15 at the High Desert Museum.

“The High Desert Museum is committed to presenting exhibitions that engage visitors and examine diverse stories from the Western landscape. Blake Little’s work is an excellent example of the nuanced history that we don’t always see in the Intermountain West,” said the Museum’s Executive Director Dana Whitelaw, Ph.D.

The exhibition consists of 41 black-and-white photographs taken by Little between 1988 and 1992. The images document the gay rodeo circuit and the lives of many of its participants during those years. The collected body of work not only serves as a stunning example of black-and-white portraiture and of rodeo photography, it also explores the diverse and complex nature of individual and community identity in the West.

Blake Little: Photographs from the Gay Rodeo is drawn from an exhibition curated by Johanna Blume, assistant curator of Western art at the Eiteljorg Museum, and offered through the courtesy of the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis, Indiana.

www.highdesertmuseum.org