Photobook Review:
RIDING THROUGH COMPTON
By: Aurora Fenzl
A photobook review about RIDING THROUGH COMPTON for University of Wisconsin - River Falls class ART 335.
All media and content for education purposes only.

Description
When first approaching this book, I walked into the library with some of my peers who were also looking for specific photography books. On a shelf of new to the collection and this was this particular book that was displayed on the tilted white rack facing the glossy front cover out. The cover and spine are blazing orange with a Times New Roman styled font in gold foil RIDING THROUGH COMPTON under the photo centered on the top one third of the cover. The cover design is bold, allowing for high contrast between the striking warm orange and gold with what we came here for: the black and white image of a young African American man standing next to a horse in English tack. The size is big enough to command attention, but it is light enough to be easily held or displayed without getting heavy. It is about 12 ¼ inches tall by 10 ¼ inches wide. When flipping through the paper, the emulsion has a pearl not quite glossy quality that catches the light, but the print of the photo is a matte surface that texturally neutralizes glare or overhead lights.

Interpretation
My therapist asked if I ever allow myself to be messy. I was messy on page 37. I paired my second reading of RIDING THROUGH COMPTON with listening the Beyonce’s new album Cowboy Carter. By page 37 I reached the tracks of “BODYGUARD”, “DOLLY P”, “JOLENE”, and “DAUGHTER” and sat with “Adrina At Sr. Cliff’s Texas-Style Burritos, 2017”. I was launched back to a childhood full of girlish dreams of horses before life has slowly pulled me away in different directions. A similar memory of an image that was pulled from the depths of my mind. It was the image of a Margarite Henery book illustration of Five O’Clock Charlie (1962), an old retired English work horse, coming to the “swing-out swing-in” window for an apple tart from Birdie an English baker every day. This book was my favorite as a child, this was the one I would ask my parents to read repeatedly. I felt those same emotions of pure and innocent joyful love of the most beautiful form I have ever seen. I knew the exact feeling when Adrina who is photographed in the book says, “I have loved horses since I was really young, before I even met one.” (pg. 4) I am an equestrian, artist, and marketing communications scholar and I can tell you that I resonated with this artwork.
I don’t experience things by halves when it comes to art. Life is integrated in art and I very much experienced integration of my life as a child loving all things horses and giving me purpose. It is this shared experience of riding as a young person that allows me to now enter this new space of Compton. Amongst my other horse book collection is a story which looms large in my mind. This book is Ghetto Cowboy, by Gregory Neri (2009) where I was first introduced to black horse culture. What these horses bring to people in an urban environment. There is an old adage that “in riding horses we borrow freedom and power”. For a community who has been through generations of hardship and marginalization, horses can offer much. These photos of RIDING THROUGH COMPTON can offer us much. The feeling that I get while learning about and coming to terms with the culture of horsemanship in Compton, is so deeply communicated via the media of photography. From the moving photograph of a young man and his horse standing vigil over a fresh gravestone to Ertha Kitt (the horse) draped in her rider Mayisha Akbar’s brightly pattered ensemble we see these underlying forces that have shaped the subjects featured in the series of photographs. Bonds can be seen between not only the community of people, but the horses and the people as well. We can see if someone has an affinity to a particular horse, because they are seen sharing space with them more often. It is a universal sentiment that once you start spending time with horses, there will be individual horses that we develop relationships with. Much like us humans, horses have a social need. They are prey animals sensitive to emotions right down to hearing the rate of hearts beating from four feet away and synchronizing their own to react quickly in a survival setting. A horse will know when their human is distressed. This is a relational agreement that has existed for thousands of years, being experienced with contemporary lenses in RIDING THROUGH COMPTON.


Evaluation
As a tool for educating a layperson on the street for what the Compton Junior Equestrian and Compton Cowboys do and are, I say yes, this book is effective. However, this book is more than just a promotional device, in a way only art can do as opposed to websites or press releases. This book’s main objective seems to be the connections between the riders, horses, and the communities they inhabit and move through. Portraits of African Americans on horseback is a juxtaposition to the mainstream images expected when a viewer approaches the concept of horse and rider. Thanks to popular American media, the racial architype of a white cowboy is not an easy one to shake, alongside the just as popular white “horse-girl”. The photographs bring a formalized dignity to the subjects. The title “cowboy” and “equestrian” is being claimed repeatedly with every photograph. In many complex societies for thousands of years, horses and the command of a horse denote power, control, wealth, and status. Most of these social associations of proximity with horses are contradicting what our culture says about those who are African American, Latinx, etc.
In writing this, one of the most notable events in equestrian sports is coming up in a matter of days. The Kentucky Derby. Two minuets of horse racing, the product of about 150 years of selective exclusivity in America’s South. I have always had mixed feelings about this event and people are sometimes taken aback when I say I don’t necessarily like it, for a multitude of reasons, including the first time the race was run in 1875. “At the first Kentucky Derby, in 1875, 13 of 15 jockeys were African American. Between 1890 and 1899, Black jockeys won six Derbies, one Preakness Stakes, and three Belmont Stakes. But in the early 1900s Black jockeys disappeared. Jimmy Winkfield was the last African American to win a Triple Crown race, in 1902.” (National Bureau of Economic Research) The tradition was built on the romanticized time that took place during practices of Segregation (1849-1950). It is my hope that this photography book takes its place as part of the road our society walks towards a better acceptance and normalcy of anyone who loves horses can participate with horses.
Addressing if this book communicates its intent well, I am making my decision off gut impressions. This book is my first foray into looking critically at photobooks as a communicative device utilizing the visual qualities of photographs and text aids. Even a viewer who is not as passionate about the context or subject matter of the photographs as me, sees a dynamic raw beauty that stirs up the sediments inside. This shifting creates a reaction in the viewer, and it is this reaction that pushes a viewer outside of the scripted norms integral to their perception of reality. Only at this point can learning and change occur. Yes, RIDING THROUGH COMPTON communicates its intent well.

Sources
Henry, Marguerite, and Wesley Dennis. Five O’clock Charlie. Rand McNally, 1975.
“How and Why Black Riders Were Driven from American Racetracks.” NBER, National Bureau of Economic Research , 28 Dec. 2020, www.nber.org/digest/202101/how-and-why-black-riders-were-riven-american-racetracks.
Klein, Alexander. “Oliver Lewis (1856-1924) .” •, 3 Apr. 2024, www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/lewis-oliver-1856-1924/.
McDaniel, Melodie, and Amelia Fleetwood. Riding Through Compton. Minor Matters Books, 2018.
ISBN: 978-1-7321241-2-7
Neri, Greg, and Jesse Joshua Watson. Ghetto Cowboy: A Novel. Candlewick Press, 2014.