It’s only appropriate that I write and release this at Rodeo time. It’s not often that you run across books about someone you met years before. I was in a Tubac bookstore a while back and saw “Never Don’t Pay Attention.” I only started reading it because Rodeo time rolled around. It was time to pick it up. I had a hard time putting it down.
Louise Serpa was a rarity, a woman rodeo photographer. Well into her career when I met her in the 1970s, I learned firsthand at a college rodeo that she owned the arena. She was a Vassar grad from New York City, she and her two young daughters made their way to Tucson in 1959-60. Her rodeo and cowhand experiences in Wyoming and the west before she landed in the Old Pueblo prepared her well. Louise was also a customer at Tucson Photo Company when I worked there in the mid-70s.
A great story of grit and determination, she really held her own with the cowboys. Most of them accepted her because her photos showed them at work. Her photos gave them ideas on how to improve their technique.
Jan Cleere, the author of “Never Don’t Pay Attention,” also has written several historical nonfiction books. Most feature women and their role in the west.
Of course the first book led to wanting more. I learned that her photo book, “Rodeo” was still available. Published by Aperture with notes by Larry McMurtry, it only made sense that this would be a followup volume.
And it is only fitting that she was born in 1925, the first year of the Tucson Rodeo.
Relentless
