Louise Serpa, Rodeo Photographer

Louise Serpa is a pioneer in the truest sense of the word. An accomplished

photographer, Serpa's rodeo images cover more than 40 years of rodeo and exude energy, excitement and emotion. Serpa has often been referred to as "the Ansel Adams of rodeo".

Serpa was born in 1925 and grew up in the high society world of New York City. But a trip to Nevada when she was just a child made a lasting impression. "I thought I had died and gone to heaven," she recalled.

At 17, she took a summer job wor.king at a Wyoming dude ranch where she met Lex Connelly in 1943. Then, she didn't think much of those who devoted their lives to rodeo, and told Connelly that rodeo was.a "waste of a life!" Nevertheless, Connelly introduced her to the world of rodeo, a world she would come to love.

In fact, the attraction was like a strong opiate. While studying opera at Vassar, where she graduated with a degree in music, Serpa often interrupted her studies to watch rodeos at Madison Square Garden. Although she sang and danced in nightclubs and performed at use shows on the East Coast during World War II, music would not become a career for her.

Serpa followed the sun. Like the pioneers of old, she, too, went in search of opportunities and a fresh start, a place where she could exercise her freedom, exert her independence and begin anew.

In Nevada, she married a local cowboy, Gordon "Tex" Serpa, in 1953 and they had two girls, in 1956 and 1959. After the marriage ended, Serpa and the girls moved to Tucson, Arizona in 1960.

In Tucson, she attended her first junior rodeo to watch the child of a friend compete­until then she had never heard of junior rodeos. It was also at Tucson she turned a hobby into a career. She first began dabbling in photography in Nevada, taking pictures of cowboys competing in local rodeos.

            "They bought the film and bought me beers," she quipped, explaining these photographs

were not artistic but were used by the cowboys for training purposes.

            In Arizona-and a little desperate for money after her youngest developed rheumatoid

arthritis-Serpa turned pro, taking photographs and selling 5x7 copies for 75 cents each.

            "I shot from the side and through the fence, and I did anything I could to make money

with a camera," she said.

Although she never trained professionally, Serpa's shutter skills and a natural instinct for anticipating the action quickly gained her entry into the professional arena in 1963 making her the first woman ever permitted inside the arena.

            "I was told I could get in the ring, but not to get in the way. If you get run over, that's too

bad. So I learned pretty quickly not to get in the way. If you do, you get run over" Serpa said.

But you don't spend that many years in the rodeo arena with bucking broncs and snorting bulls without accumulating a few bragging rights, or at least a couple of black and blue

spots. Serpa has had her share of kicks, bruises and tight moments.

An angry bull once broke her sternum in Boulder City, and she was once "squeezed like a tube of toothpaste" up against a fence. In her book, Rodeo, she warns, "Never don't pay attention."

            Promoted as the most dangerous sport in the world, Serpa had reservations about a

woman in the rodeo arena, but she wanted to take good photographs and saw it as a challenge. It wasn't long afterwards that the television show, To Tell The Truth, got wind of this East Coast girl inside the rodeo ring and invited her to appear on the show.

             "I didn't fool the panel. So, I asked Kitty Carlisle how they knew? She told me 'You look

like a Vassar girll' And I've been trying to live that down ever since."

            Serpa has had many firsts. She was the first woman permitted on the course of the

Grand National Steeplechase in England in 1970. She was the first female to shot in the ring at

 

the Dublin Horse Show. A national documentary, When the Dust Settles, was shown on PBS, and in 1995, Aperture published Rodeo, which also includes commentary from Larry McMurtry. Serpa was also inducted into the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in 2000, was the 2002 recipient of the Tad Lucas Award given annually by the Rodeo Historical Society and named the 2005 PRCA photographer of the year.

At 80, Serpa likes to think she is slowing down. "I get mad when my knees don't work:' she stated matter-of-factly. Yet she has many projects in the works, including plans for a new book of photographs featuring western faces. Though she claims she won't shoot in the arena at the 2006 Tucson Rodeo, Serpa will be capturing memories from the sidelines.

Serpa is grateful to the entire rodeo family. "They were kind and supportive" and "let me be a part of so many peoples' lives, their children, grandchildren, and now great grandchildren. Rodeo has been the greatest thing for me. I loved the people and the sport. But it never occurred to me that I would be any part of it. I shot it because I loved it!"