I wasn’t planning to write about Moments of Rodeo again.
It’s a photo book I released quietly in 2019—300+ images pulled from over a decade of photographing rodeo across more than ten states. Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Pennsylvania... I lived it, with dust on my boots, camera in hand, and a duffle in the back of my friend’s trailer. The work was raw. The nights were long. I wasn’t chasing awards—I was just trying to survive it, remember it, and make sense of it.
Back then, I didn’t know if the images were any good. I still don’t know if they’re “great” in a competition sense. There’s very little writing in the book. No grand narrative. Just the rhythm of nights and dirt and lonely arenas under floodlights.
But a few days ago, something shifted.
At a recent speaking event at a local library, a few older women in the audience picked up the book from a table I’d brought along. They started flipping through the pages—slowly, quietly. And then one of them looked up and said:
“These photos make me feel like I was there.”
That sentence knocked the wind out of me.
Because maybe that’s all I ever wanted.
Not to be perfect. Not to be famous. But to bring someone into a world they’d never know otherwise. A world I lived in for years. One filled with bravery and heartbreak, performance and pain, and beauty most people never stop long enough to see.
So today, I want to reintroduce this book—not because it’s flawless, but because it’s honest.
Because it mattered to someone.
And maybe it will matter to you.
If you’ve ever wondered what rodeo life really looked like from behind the chutes and beyond the spotlight—Moments of Rodeo is my answer.
It’s not a book I created to impress.
It’s a book I created because I had to.
And I’m proud of it again, finally.
You can take a look here:
👉 Moments of Rodeo: https://www.blurb.com/b/9396923-moments-of-rodeo
Thanks for reading.
And thanks to the women in that library—who reminded me that sometimes, it’s not about being seen by everyone, just being felt by someone.
—Tiffany Bumgardner
Exposure One Studios