RON TARVER
THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COWBOY EXPERIENCE IN AMERICA

Images in this portfolio were included in the exhibit “Black Cowboy,” at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2017 and have been exhibited around the country. They are selected from thousands of photographs made over 30 years throughout the country. These photographs reaffirm this thriving culture of Black owned ranches, rodeo operations, parades, inner-city cowboys, and retired cowhands. It questions our constructions of what it means to be a cowboy, and with that, what it means to be American.

The African American cowboy has been a fixture on the American landscape for as long as Americans have conceived of “The West”, yet their stories have been largely edited out of that perception. The Long Ride Home: the African American Cowboy Experience in America present multifaceted narratives of African Americans who connect with their western heritage. The subject as come into recent focus due to Lil Was X’s smash hit Old Town Road which put a spotlight on black cowboy culture.

Bio

Ron Tarver grew up in rural, Northeastern Oklahoma in the small agricultural community of Ft. Gibson Oklahoma. His grandfather was a working cowboy in the 40s and he has spent many long, hot summer days hauling hay and working on local farms. He received a BA in Journalism and Graphic Arts from Northeaster State University in Oklahoma and an MFA from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He is Visiting Assistant Professor of Studio Art at Swarthmore College in Swarthmore PA. Before joining the faculty at Swarthmore he had been a staff photojournalist at The Philadelphia Inquirer for 32 years where he shares the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for his work on a series documenting school violence in the Philadelphia public school system. During his time at the Inquirer he was nominated for three Pulitzers and honored with awards from World Press Photos, the Sigma Delta Chi Award of the Society of Professional Journalists, and many other national and state awards.

He is co-author of the book We Were There: Voices of African American Veterans, published by Harper Collins in 2004, which was accompanied by a traveling exhibition that debuted at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. 

Tarver has distinguished himself in the field of fine art photography. A recipient of the prestigious Pew Fellowship in the Arts, he has also received grants and funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and two Independence Foundation Fellowships.