“Brash Rodeo” by Photographer Aaron Agosto

Currently based in Montana’s Flathead Valley, photographer Aaron Agosto’s work is informed by the spirit and history of the American West. His series, “Brash Rodeo”, takes as its subject Montana’s longest running open rodeo. Run by a man named Vance Brash who moved to Montana from Pittsburgh in 2017. Brash finished building his home in the spring of 2020 and found himself with free time and the desire to connect with the place he now called home:

“I went to my first rodeo expecting a violent spectacle, but instead I was drawn to moments of softness. Softness in the light, and in the interactions, softness in what I expected to be a rugged and hyper masculine environment. Over time the project became a way for me to build a connection with a place and culture that wasn’t my own, as well as a way to challenge my own preconceived notions of what I had expected the American West to be. The mythology of the west I had always thought I had known was one of was one of rugged individualism, of brash machismo, and poetic solitude. As I grew to know the west I began to understand a more nuanced view of the place and culture.”