Ralph Doubleday and the American Rodeo
Posted on February 7, 2008 by admin
Famed rodeo historian Foghorn Clancy called Ralph Russell Doubleday “the undisputed World’s Champion Rodeo Photographer”. His photographs, postcards and prints from negatives played a tremendous role in advancing the sport of rodeo. According to Clancy, “Ralph was the first noted rodeo photographer because, in those days, there were not many photographers who would risk camera and film, not to mention life and limb, trying to get action pictures”.
Doubleday’s story is chronicled in articles compiled by the Donald C. and Elizabeth M. Dickinson Research Center at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma. Doubleday’s photos capture the thrill, excitement and real danger of the sport and beg the question, ‘where the heck was he standing–perhaps under the steer–when he snapped that shot’? They also remind viewers why western belt buckles, as stylish as they’ve become, are more necessity than fashion statement: They keep your pants on, cowboys, when a buckin’ bronco is doing all he can to throw you.
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