Dale Scherfling

Rodeo & Ranch Life

Artist Statement

I write full time — mostly flash fiction and creative nonfiction — and photograph people, no weddings, not grip and grins, usually not portraiture — posed that is. On the streets, yes. Candids, yes. Posed, not so much.

I shot sports for newspapers and wasn’t that good at it. Missed many shots because I got caught up in the action. In football, I tried for the receivers’ fingertip catches.Trouble was always focused on the wrong receiver. Sideline photography was my thing – coach’s anguish, strained and sweaty players. All the faces and drama stuff.

Boxing was better, harsh black and whites in a smokey gym, color in the arena, shooting like George Bellows painted, in barbershop walls a hundred years ago. Sport editors said I was too artsy-fartsy; the Sunday supplements loved me. Those in the boxing trade say I shoot like an artist. I try.

I was a combat photographer in the military but saw no combat. Shot a lot of Quonset huts being erected with the Navy Seabees.

I teach creative photography in colleges and art centers, concentrating, on people in action, of course. While my students shoot models in life study classes, I shoot the students shooting models. I do a lot of street photography and conduct classes out there. I like the unposed stuff.

— Dale Scherfling, September 2025