2007 Tristan Spinski
Tristan Spinski, a second-year student at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, won the Dorothea Lange Fellowship for his series of black-and-white photographs of Nevada rodeos. He said he plans to use the $4,000 award to pursue his project on American rodeo riders, paying for equipment and travel to rodeos in California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming.
"I want to tell an American, working-class story with my photographs, full of action, heartbreak, and all the subtle moments of victory and defeat in between," Spinski wrote in his application for the fellowship.
His award-winning images include one of a cowboy wrestling a steer to the ground in a swirl of dust and hooves and leather. Others show the world surrounding the ring: the crowd in the stands, sober rodeo clowns after a hard night's work, and cowboys milling outside the chute.
Spinski, 26, grew up in Delaware and Ohio. He graduated from University of Delaware in 2001 with an undergraduate degree in English. In the summer of 2004 he interned with the Cape Gazette in Lewes, Del., and with the U.S. Army in Fort Irwin, Calif., where Army and National Guard soldiers train before shipping out to Iraq.
Spinski said he initially planned to be a print journalist, specializing in long-form feature writing. An undergraduate assignment first introduced him to the rodeo world, but it was a fluke of class scheduling at Berkeley's graduate school that led to photography, he said.
"I tried to get into some writing classes, but they were full -- so I wound up with two photography classes in one semester," Spinski explained. After that immersion at UC Berkeley, he was hooked.
Spinski said he used a Nikon F4, and Tri-X 400 and T-Max 3200 film, and shot only with natural light.
In a letter of recommendation, the 2003 winner of the Lange Fellowship called Spinski's photographs "vibrant, gutsy, and, at times, surprising."
"Tristan is not intimidated by the people he photographs or the rough conditions of the rodeo," wrote Mimi Chakarova, a photography lecturer at Berkeley’s journalism school. "Tristan feels at home no matter where he takes his camera. He relates to the common man, because he does not judge; he radiates respect and willingness to learn from strangers. And he is a damn good photographer."
Photo Gallery
“What motivates a bartender, a sales clerk, or construction worker to drive a quarter of the way across the country to ride a bull?” asks photographer Tristan Spinski. His photographic study-in-progress of the rodeo earned him the 2004 Dorothea Lange Fellowship. “The rodeo is a window into a fringe of ‘man culture,’” Tristan says. “It’s not so much about hanging onto that bull for eight seconds, as much as it is being able to say that you didn’t back down from what scored you the most. How many of us can say that?” His prize winning photos were taken throughout Nevada, and he plans to continue the study at rodeos in California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming.
Steer wrestling
A cowboy slides off his horse and onto the back of a young bull in Winnemucca, Nevada. When one cowboy missed his mark and the bull scampered off, the announcer swore he saw the steer’s lips curl up into a smile.
Crowd
From left, Carl Brooks, Marilyn Brooks, and Lena Ramey sit in the bleachers with their dog, Fallon, to watch the rodeo in Fallon, Nevada.
Profile
A horse looks on as cowboys prepare to mount-up for the bareback bronc-riding event at the Fernley, Nevada, rodeo.
Rode with God
Tom Samora, a cowboy from Phoenix, Arizona, prays before bull riding in Winnemucca, Nevada.
The ride
A cowboy hangs on to a thousand-pound, dust-kicking bull in Fallon, Nevada.
The clowns
Danny Wilkinson (left) and Garry Miller, both bullfighters, undress after the Senior Pro Rodeo Championship in Winnemucca, Nevada.
Exploding out of the chutesA horse launches Rick Miller into the rodeo arena in Fernley, Nevada.
Project Proposal
Grant Harris was the first cowboy I ever met. It was spring of 2001, and he ran a rodeo and livestock auction in Woodstown, N. J., about 25 minutes southeast of Philadelphia. Harris was missing half of his right thumb. He severed it while "dally roping" as a teenager. Dally roping, he explained, is when you lasso a bull from horseback and tie your end of the rope around the saddle horn. He forgot to keep his thumb pointed up and inadvertently wound it in with the rope. The bull gave a tug, and off popped the top of his thumb.
I asked him why he didn't have it sewed back on.
"I salt-cured it," Harris said. "I used to whip it out of my pocket and scare the girls."
I asked him if he still carried it.
"No. I loaned it to a buddy in high school," he said. "He never gave it back. That son-of-a-bitch stole my thumb."
Harris had a way of chucking off misfortune. He was tough in a way that I could never be. He was tough in a way that doesn't make a lot of sense. That's why I chose to document the rodeo. I want to tell an American, working class story with my photographs — full of action, heartbreak and all the subtle moments of victory and defeat in between. When the riders get nervous, they wear poker faces and spit tobacco juice, I plan to continue capturing these nonsensical moments by understanding the mythology of the American cowboy. What motivates a bartender, a sales clerk, or construction worker to drive a quarter of the way across the country to ride a bull? What drives him to jump off a galloping horse onto the neck of a steer and wrestle it to the ground, or to distract a bull to keep it from goring and trampling a cowboy? The rodeo is a window into a fringe of "man culture." It's not so much about hanging onto that bull for eight seconds, as much as it is being able to say that you didn’t back down from what scared you the most. How many of us can say that?
I'm shooting both Tri-X 400 and T-Max 3200 on my Nikon F4. I push my film when necessary, as I only use available light. So far, I've attended rodeos in Fernley, Fallon, and Winnemucca — all towns in Nevada. This is just the beginning, as I have made contacts with several bull riders and plan to go on the road with them in winter and spring. I hope to finish the project by the end of summer 2005.
Above all, I want to say that I make honest photographs. By honest, I mean that I capture true moments of interaction and am able to communicate the substance and complexity of people — the way Lange did. Her portraiture awes me, and my lack of experience, grasp of the medium, and limited finances are what keep me from making the caliber of images that she did. The Dorothea Lange Fellowship will enable me to pursue this project by funding my travel expenses and equipment costs through California, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming — allowing me to go deeper into the story of the American rodeo riders.
—Tristan Spinski