Tourists travel to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as a tropical, urban party town, but a few miles from Fort Lauderdale, locals dress as cowgirls in the suburb of Davie. The town is cowboy themed, complete with cops on horses, animal stables outside McDonald’s, and country music nightclubs in shopping plazas. For the past few years, local photographer Melanie Metz has been documenting the women of the suburb’s rodeos. We sent her to this month’s Pro Rodeo finals to shoot portraits of the moms, children, and trailer park gals.
