“To begin with, it was very personal, a way to reconnect with a side of myself I had suppressed. It embraces both ends of the American cultural spectrum: people living on the land, but who are also queer. What I think is really beautiful, and so inspiring, about the queer rodeo community is that it brings back that aura of promise. But as we grow older, we realise this promise is kind of a myth. “We’re taught in school to recite the national anthem every morning. The result is National Anthem, Gilford’s first photographic monograph – and, to his mind, a timely musing on the state of America. We don’t think of them going together.” He set about exploring how they might. “We all know what a rodeo is,” he says, “and we all know what queer is. So this chance encounter with a bunch of people who’d managed to do what seemed impossible to him was as exciting as it was discombobulating. We don’t think of them as going together.’ Photograph: Luke Gilford ‘We all know what a rodeo is and we all know what queer is.
