Ilona Szwarc’s wonderful series of all-American rodeo girls

Poland-born Ilona Szwarc’s series Rodeo Girls began during one of her trips back to Texas where she used to study as a foreign exchange student in high school. “I was introduced to the community through my friends. There’s a local rodeo there once a week, so I’d photograph there but also travel along with the girls to rodeos in different towns around northern and western Texas and Oklahoma,” says Ilona.

Her portraits capture the girls with their horses, hanging out with each other and in their homes, usually before and after competitions. Taken with a large format camera, there’s a formal quality to the composition and the way the girls are posed giving them a grace and elegance. “This series builds on my previous work American Girls, and is about the different ways of being a girl in the United States,” explains Ilona. “It’s about how these individuals are constructing their identities in this particular world.”

Indigo jeans and patterned shirts clash with the natural landscape that surrounds the girls and there’s a dusty glow throughout the series. Their freckles and windswept hair remind us of the girls’ innocence, creating an air of nostalgia. “The photographs celebrate the beauty of the terrain and the idiosyncrasies of this old fashioned American tradition,” says the photographer.