Svoboda, James

James Svoboda first attempted to photograph rodeo in high school, but found being a contestant in the three roughstock events and steer wrestling a bigger draw. During the twenty years that he competed as a contestant, Svoboda honed his photography skills. He watched DeVere Helfrich capture the action at the rodeo in Burwell, Nebraska. Svoboda changed cameras on the advice of the seasoned rodeo photographer. For the past sixty-plus years, Svoboda has worked the photography end of rodeo from the states of Florida, New Jersey, California, Washington, North Dakota, Texas and nearly everywhere in between. He has been photographing his hometown rodeo in Burwell for nearly the last 50 years. “One of the first things I ever learned about rodeo photography was to capture that photo no matter how difficult the shooting conditions.”