Project Uncut took the barbershop, a space guarded by a narrow idea of masculinity, and asked who gets to sit in the chair. The Ranch asks the same question of the home of the cowboy.
The cowboy is one of the most desired figures in queer imagination: the chaps, the denim, the hat, the long stretches without women, the company of horses and other men. Queer culture has claimed him for decades, yet the Western has always insisted he is straight, white and alone.
The Ranch is a queer reclamation that keeps the swagger, but opens the gate.
Images of Queer adults, semi-nude and nude, take their place in a tradition that once excluded them. Like Uncut, this is a series about who is allowed to feel at ease in a space that was never built for them.
The myth of the cowboy plays on the isolation of the lone rider with nobody to answer to.
This project offers the opposite: a ranch with room for everyone, where the fantasy is shared rather than solitary.
Wanna join The Ranch? Get in touch here.
Cowboy: Tj Lucas-Box
