Ron Tarver: The Long Ride Home, Black Cowboys in America
Please join us for a Gallery Talk and Opening Reception for Ron Tarver, The Long Ride Home: Black Cowboys in America.
5:30pm – Gallery Talks
6 – 7:30pm – Opening Reception
The exhibition reveals the depth, breadth, beauty and visual poetry of Black cowboys throughout America. Until recently, popular culture had not recognized the vital Black contribution to our national stories of “The American West.” The Long Ride Home offers a contemporary counter-narrative to the traditional whitewashed myths. Tarver’s insightful photographs of Black Western heritage affirm a thriving culture of Black-owned ranches, rodeos, parades, inner-city cowboys and retired cowhands, from rural ranches to big city riding clubs – many in Philadelphia.
Set against the recent ascent of Black Western culture and the nation’s Semiquincentennial, Tarver’s color photographs celebrate this heritage as a foundational part of American history and contemporary culture. All shot in the 1990s, these 40 images bear witness to the lived experiences of Black cowboys and cowgirls across the U.S.
The exhibition will be on view September 11 – November 14, 2026.
Ron Tarver (b.1957, Fort Gibson, OK; l. Elkins Park, PA), has a BA from Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, OK, and an MFA from the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA. He was a staff photojournalist at The Philadelphia Inquirer for 32 years, where he won a Pulitzer Prize and awards from World Press Photos, Society of Professional Journalists and National Press Photographers Association. Tarver has received Guggenheim Foundation, Independence Foundation, NEA and Pew Fellowships.
His work has been exhibited in numerous exhibitions nationally and internationally, including at The Print Center, Philadelphia. It is included in many collections, including the State Museum of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; Philadelphia Museum of Art; and Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC. Tarver’s work has been published in Ebony,Jet, Life, National Geographic, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated and Time, and has appeared online on Huffington Post and Hyperallergic. He co-authored We Were There: Voices of African American Veterans (2004), which accompanied a traveling exhibition that debuted at the National Constitution Center. His award-winning second book is The Long Ride Home: Black Cowboys in America (2024). Tarver is Associate Professor/Department Chair of Art, Swarthmore College, PA.
