Photographer John DeVere Helfrich

John DeVere Helfrich was born on April 16, 1902, in Lamonta, Oregon, a small community west of Prineville. His grandparents, Julius and Sarah McCoin, had homesteaded a ranch at the foot of Gray Butte between Madras and Prineville in 1880. As a young man, DeVere worked with cattle and wild horses on his uncle Walter McCoin's ranch near Redmond.

After attending the University of Oregon for one year, DeVere worked at a bank in Bend and as a surveyor for irrigation projects in Central Oregon. In 1926, he married Helen Grace Reed, a Bend native whose family also had deep roots in the region.

The couple moved to Klamath Falls in the 1930s and operated several businesses before becoming professional photographers. DeVere owned a furniture store and later an ice cream parlor. When wartime rationing made sugar and other ingredients difficult to obtain, the ice cream business closed and photography became increasingly important to the family.

DeVere began working professionally as a rodeo photographer around 1939. He gained recognition quickly, winning the World's Championship Rodeo Corporation's best-picture prize in 1941 for a photograph of Gene Pruett riding Colonel Dean at the Prairie City Rodeo.

Photographing rodeo's golden era

DeVere and Helen spent nearly 30 years traveling the rodeo circuit. They drove thousands of miles and reportedly spent more than half of each year on the road.

Their circuit extended well beyond Oregon and Washington. They photographed major rodeos in places such as Cheyenne, Pendleton, Reno, Denver, Phoenix, Yuma, San Francisco, and San Angelo, along with hundreds of smaller community rodeos and roundups.

The Helfriches served as official photographers for the Rodeo Cowboys Association, now the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, for more than 25 years. DeVere photographed many of the leading competitors of the era, including Jim Shoulders, Casey Tibbs, Dean Oliver, and other prominent riders and ropers.

One of his best-known photographs depicts Bill Ward riding the horse Sea Lion at the 1956 rodeo in San Angelo, Texas. A stylized version of this image was later adopted as the emblem of the Rodeo Cowboys Association.

DeVere was posthumously inducted into the National Rodeo Hall of Fame in 1991. Along with Ralph Doubleday and John A. Stryker, he is sometimes described as one of the three major photographers who documented professional rodeo during the middle decades of the 20th century.

DeVere's action photography

DeVere's photographs are outrageously fun.

His best images capture riders, bulls, and bucking horses at the precise moment when the action becomes most dramatic. Cowboys appear suspended in midair, twisted backward over a horse, thrown toward the ground, or holding desperately to a bull as it changes direction.

DeVere, who was blind in one eye, worked with a Speed Graphic cut-film press camera. The camera was manually operated and required him to anticipate the action carefully. He preferred to work approximately 30 to 40 feet from his subject, close enough to place both his equipment and his body at risk.

His approach was not simply to follow the rider. He watched the rhythm of the horse, the position of its hooves, and the movement of the cowboy's feet. This allowed him to release the shutter at the moment when the animal and rider formed the strongest composition.

Working inside a rodeo arena could be dangerous. DeVere was struck by a pickup horse on one occasion and rolled by a bull on another. Cowboys nevertheless trusted him because he was careful not to distract the animals or interfere with a rider's performance. When danger approached, they reportedly made room for him to climb onto the fence.

Helen Helfrich's photography

Helen was not merely DeVere's assistant. She was a photographer and professional partner with a distinct role in the business.

While DeVere concentrated on arena action, Helen generally produced the posed portraits. Her subjects included cowboys, rodeo officials, riders with their horses, and other participants who wanted a more formal record of the event.

Helen initially worked with a 1929 twin-lens Rolleiflex before the couple adopted smaller 35mm equipment. Her portraits may be less immediately recognizable than DeVere's airborne riders, but they form an important part of the Helfrich archive.

The couple's working routine was demanding. DeVere photographed during the day and developed his negatives in the evening. Helen printed late into the night, rested during the morning, and then displayed and delivered the finished photographs while arranging new portraits.

During the 1950s, the Helfriches converted a small trailer into a traveling darkroom. This allowed them to develop, print, and sell photographs before leaving each rodeo.

Postcards and photograph sales

The Helfriches earned income by selling photographs directly to cowboys, their families, rodeo organizers, and spectators. A participant could see a photograph of his ride, order a print, and often receive it while the rodeo was still underway.

During the winter off-season, DeVere and Helen printed additional photographs and assembled postcard sets to sell during the following season. This practice helps explain why many Helfrich postcards remain in circulation today and why groups of related cards occasionally surface together.

Most familiar examples are black-and-white real photo postcards. They often include a caption within the image identifying:

• The rider or roper
• The horse or bull
• The type of competition
• The rodeo location
• The year
• The name DeVere

The subjects commonly include saddle-bronc and bareback riding, bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling, team roping, trick riding, horse races, and riders being thrown from their mounts.

Helen also hand-colored larger photographic prints used in storefront displays to advertise upcoming rodeos. These colorized prints are much less common than the postcard-size photographs and can be especially striking.

Identifying Helfrich postcards

Collectors should examine each Helfrich card carefully. Both photographic and mechanically printed versions can be found.

A genuine real photo postcard will generally show smooth, continuous photographic tones under magnification. Printed reproductions display a regular pattern of dots or other evidence of mechanical printing.

Common identifying characteristics include:

• DeVere written or printed within the image
• A caption naming the rider and animal
• A rodeo location and abbreviated year
• A white lower margin containing the caption
• A photographic postcard back
• Strong contrast and sharply frozen action

The presence of DeVere's name does not automatically make a card an RPPC. Some of his photographs were reproduced as printed black-and-white postcards, and sellers do not always classify the formats accurately.

The distinction matters because the photographic cards preserve much more of the original negative's detail. Fine elements such as arena dust, clothing, saddle equipment, facial expressions, and the muscles of the animal may disappear in a lower-quality printed reproduction.

Some postcard captions were written into or applied to the original negative. As a result, the photographer's name and identifying text may appear reversed in tone as part of the photographic image rather than being printed onto the finished card.

Notes and market conditions from North West Postcards

Real photo postcards by DeVere Helfrich are reasonably common in Pacific Northwest collections. The Helfriches produced reprints and sold postcards in bundled sets, allowing many of the images to survive in greater numbers than ordinary photographs sold to individual rodeo participants.

Common Helfrich RPPCs are frequently offered between approximately $5 and $20. Dealers may ask $20 to $30 or more for particularly dramatic scenes, named champions, scarce rodeo locations, or exceptionally clean examples.

Actual demand remains selective. Many cards offered at ambitious prices sit unsold for extended periods, so asking prices should not be treated as completed-sale values.

The strongest postcard subjects generally include:

• A well-known cowboy, rider, or roper
• A famous bucking horse or bull
• A particularly dramatic fall or airborne rider
• A scarce small-town rodeo
• An early date
• A clearly identified competition
• A sharp image with strong contrast
• A visually clean composition
• Unusual trick riding or team events

Cards showing an unidentified rider against a distant or cluttered background usually bring less, even when they are genuine Helfrich photographs.

Location can also influence value. A collector of Pendleton, Cheyenne, Klamath Falls, Prineville, or another specific rodeo may pay more for a card that has little additional appeal to a general postcard collector.

Condition matters, but subject scarcity can outweigh minor damage. Creases, heavy silvering, fading, stains, paper loss, and writing across the image reduce value. Slight corner wear or writing on the reverse is less important when the card depicts an unusual rider, animal, or event.

Printed Helfrich postcards

Mechanically printed Helfrich cards also appear regularly. These are sometimes described as lithographs, halftones, or simply printed postcards.

Although they reproduce the same exciting compositions, they usually lack the gritty detail and tonal depth that make the real photo cards so compelling. Common printed examples generally occupy the least expensive portion of the Helfrich market.

A printed card may still be collectible when it depicts a famous competitor, desirable rodeo, or exceptionally dramatic event. Format is only one part of the valuation. Subject, scarcity, identification, and condition remain important.

Original photographs and hand-colored prints

Larger original Helfrich photographs belong to a substantially different market from the postcards.

These may include black-and-white gelatin silver prints, signed presentation photographs, photographs sold directly to competitors, and large hand-colored display prints. Valuable examples often carry captions identifying the rider, animal, and rodeo, along with a DeVere signature or studio stamp.

A group of 15 hand-tinted 11-by-14-inch Helfrich photographs from the 1940s sold through Swann Auction Galleries in 2017 for $6,250, including the buyer's premium. Nearly all were signed and captioned, and most retained a Helfrich stamp on the reverse.

That exceptional result should not be applied to every Helfrich photograph. The group benefited from its size, visual quality, hand coloring, consistent provenance, and presentation as a coherent collection.

Factors that may support a stronger value include:

• A vintage print made near the date of the negative
• A DeVere signature or Helfrich studio stamp
• Helen's original hand coloring
• Identification of a prominent rider or animal
• A desirable rodeo or location
• Strong action and composition
• Large size
• Good contrast and limited fading
• Original provenance
• A related group of photographs kept together

The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum now holds more than 37,000 Helfrich photographs, preserving an extraordinary visual record of rodeo during the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.

Beyond the rodeo circuit

DeVere and Helen retired from regular rodeo travel in 1967, but their work together continued.

While driving between rodeos, they had developed a shared interest in the routes followed by emigrants traveling west. They used pioneer diaries, historical records, field observations, photographs, and annotated maps to trace portions of the Oregon and California Trails.

DeVere became editor of Klamath Echoes, a regional history journal, in 1964. Helen later became assistant editor, and together they produced annual volumes documenting the history of Klamath County and the surrounding region.

DeVere died in Klamath Falls on September 1, 1981. Helen died there on July 30, 1989. Their surviving photographs, negatives, maps, correspondence, and research records document not only the golden age of professional rodeo, but also the history of Central and Southern Oregon.

Additional reading

• "DeVere (1902–1981) and Helen (1907–1989) Helfrich", Barbara Ditman, The Oregon Encyclopedia.
• "DeVere Helfrich", National Rodeo Hall of Fame.
• "DeVere and Helen Helfrich Collection", Shaw Historical Library, Oregon Institute of Technology.
• "DeVere Helfrich", Autry Museum of the American West.
• "He's the 'Dean of Rodeo Photography'", Mike Allen, Daily Record, August 17, 2007.
• "A Suite of 15 Hand-Tinted Photographs by DeVere Helfrich", Swann Auction Galleries.

Example postcards