Easy rider

Taking the bull by the horns

Featured in

  • Published 20231107
  • ISBN: 978-1-922212-89-4
  • Extent: 208pp
  • Paperback, ePub, PDF, Kindle compatible

For photographer Elise Derwin, the camera is a form of connection. She’s captured everything from nudist nomads and body builders to the devastating Lismore floods of 2022 and life during lockdown, driven by the desire to explore other people’s worlds through imagery. One world she keeps returning to is that of the Professional Bull Riders circuit, where sporting skill meets spectacle in an adrenaline-fuelled battle of man versus beast. Derwin’s images, which range from action shots to behind-the-scenes stills, convey the complexity of a subculture that’s as mythologised as it is maligned.

CARODY CULVER: You specialise in documentary and editorial photography – what draws you to seek out particular people, places or stories?

Already a subscriber? Sign in here

If you are an educator or student wishing to access content for study purposes please contact us at griffithreview@griffith.edu.au

Share article

About the author

Elise Derwin

Elise Derwin is an award-winning photographer based in Lismore, New South Wales, who specialises in documentary and editorial photography. She has also worked across...

More from this edition

Mother of pearls

FictionBut we are more animal now than we’ve ever been. We read the water that leaps into our pools; we filter all kingdoms of life through our gills. We understand that the tendrils connecting one life form to another run much longer and deeper than you might expect. And we can entertain the notion that our strange tasks were like the fateful beats of a butterfly’s wings, and maybe the witch was a rare genius, able to perceive how the purloined dog, the pawned bird or the swapped cats would, in the mysterious rippling of the universe, lead to our deepest desires coming to pass. 

Into the void

Non-fictionI think with a little fear, as I often do, of the many other (and much larger) creatures whose natural territory this is, and scan the surrounding water for any dark, fast-moving shadows. But soon I relax and settle into the rhythm of my freestyle stroke. Breathe. Pull. Pull. Pull. Breathe. Pull. Pull. Pull. Breathe.

Talking to turtles 

Non-fictionEighteen years ago, I moved to a seaside village on Cape Cod on the north-eastern shore of the United States. Finding the ocean there too dangerous, I swam in ponds. I waded through mud the consistency of yoghurt ever on the lookout for fifty- and sixty-pound snapping turtles. I dove in, swam and got out as fast as possible.

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.