Rodeo

by Norman Mauskopf

Cover for Rodeo
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Summary

". . . After viewing and reviewing these remarkable photographs, and especially the portraits, one is stirred by a sense of hidden memory, some air of childhood, the smell of cut fodder corn or late summer heat or dust devils in the evening wind - - or something even older and bloodier. Because rodeo is not entirely what it seems. We feel instinctively that any contact between man and animal is exciting but also dangerous. So, like marriage, death, birth, or sex, it is restrained by a network of customs, a set of rules that permits the peril, but corrals it into theater. One has only to examine closely the marvelous detail of Norman Mauskopf's more intimate prints, not merely photographs, but observations deeply seen and deeply felt, and note the ceremonial costumes, the traditional facial masks and torn-off jeans of the clowns, and the hat-over-heart patriotism, to realize that these are not just cowboy games. Mauskopf has uncovered something more profound and instinctive. . . " - Ben Maddow, Los Angeles 1985 (Introduction to "Rodeo")

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