EVENTS
Rodeo Photographer
Born in Oregon in 1902, Devere Helfrich had many careers before discovering photography. He went to college, worked in a bank, built irrigation ditches, owned a furniture store and an ice cream parlor, and worked at a plywood factory. In the late 1930s he began a career as a rodeo photographer.
With Ralph Doubleday and John Stryker, Devere Helfrich was one of “the big three” who recorded the sport of rodeo. As Rodeo Cowboys Association official photographer for thirty years, he captured the action of such top hands as Jim Shoulders, Casey Tibbs, and Dean Oliver. In a dangerous line of work, Helfrich was run over by bulls and stepped on by horses, but his images were always clear and precisely focused.
Devere Helfrich recorded the history of rodeo in its “golden era,” the 1940s and 1950s. His circuit included Phoenix, Yuma, Cheyenne, Pendleton, Reno, Denver, San Francisco, and hundreds of smaller venues. The National Cowboy Hall of Fame owns the Helfrich collection of negatives, which numbers more than 30,000 images.
Devere Helfrich retired in 1979 and died in 1981 at home in Klamath Falls, Oregon.
