One day while skating down the street I saw JD Ferguson and stopped to say hello. He asked if he could take a look at my board and I handed it to him, thinking “This ought to be funny! He’s never ridden a skateboard before!”
But it wasn’t funny. It was amazing.
He took off down the street with the effortless grace of someone who’d been skating their entire lives, and then he disappeared around the corner.
JD is one of those annoying people that just happen to be good at everything they turn their hand too. If you’re familiar with JD’s blog you know he’s an excellent photographer, a born scribe, unnervingly handsome and enormously gay. But did you know he was also once a teenage rodeo prodigy? He was! And he was a very successful male model! The list is as endless as it is enviable. Read on… Girlfriend.
Interview: Jason Crombie
Photos: JD Ferguson’s private collection.
Heeeeeeey! What’s goin’ on?
Hey girl. I’m, you know, trying to find a way to make money!
Aren’t we all? What have you been doing today?
I shot this really hot Brazilian boy who’s really popular on the web. He was in town and I had a space available to me so I thought I’ll have some fun for a change and shoot somebody hot, but it was like a dead intro.
What do you mean?
Like, stiff and not fun and not into my flow.
Bummer. So tell everyone what you do. You’re primarily a photographer, right?
I’m trying to be a photographer, I mean, I haven’t ever committed or focused on being an actual editorial photographer.
Why?
Because I’ve been so busy shooting parties and shooting boys. Stoned. Just trying to make money. But, if I had the space and somebody would give me a budget I would probably be an editorial photographer.
Can we talk about when you were a Cowboy?
Yeah, sure.
Where was that? Actually, first tell me where you were born.
Well, I was born in Missouri but… Have you heard my whole spiel about where I’m from?
I don’t think so.
I was born in Missouri but I lived there five minutes, I grew up in Napa California, I went to high school in Arkansas. During college I lived in Dallas one year, Austin five. I was in Houston three years. I was in DC for three years and then I was in New York for four. Then I moved to Miami and for, like eight years and I did six months in Miami and six months in Europe. Then I was back in New York for…
Holly shit! You’ve lived all over the place!
I know! I really don’t consider myself from anywhere! I kinda think of Arkansas as home because my parents live there and that’s where I had close friends from high school, but I’ve just been fucking everywhere.
Is that where you were a cowboy? Arkansas? Roping cows?
I was in high school rodeo. When I was in high school out there I lived on a ranch and I got into jackpot barrel racing, which is really funny because that’s what all the girls do. And then I met this family, like a professional rodeo family, and I started roping calves with them, and I did that in Napa California.
Wow.
I was maige* girl! You saw my finger right? The one that got bitten off by a donkey?
Why did the donkey bite off your finger?
Because I was operating on it.
What?
No, seriously. We had fifty wild burros donated to this ranch I worked at and we had to separate the jennies from the studs…
Is a jenny a girl donkey?
Yeah. So we had to separate them and castrate the males, and I was the one person that was like “Okay, they’re really dangerous you guys. Watch your fingers, watch your fingers.” And then I was the one that got it bit off.
It bit the end of your finger off!
Yeah.
How do you castrate a donkey?
You tie their hind legs apart and you tie their front legs to their head, you make an incision and then you pull down the scrotal cord, then you cut it and sew them back up.
Aaaaaaaaagh!
Everyone I tell that to is like “Well I woulda bit your finger too!”
You’re lucky it was just your finger.
They took skin off my butt when they fixed it, so now when I scratch my face I’m scratching my ass at the same time.
Did you know you were gay back then?
I guess I knew, but I was really closeted. And then I had a nervous breakdown-slash- first rehab when I was eighteen and it kinda came out there… that the problem was that I wanted to suck cock, basically. I’ve never looked back since!
Great! Tell me about your modeling career. Can we talk about that?
Oh yeah, yeah! I’m just having a casual conversation with my girlfriend!
Cool. So how’d you become a model?
Well, lets see… I was waiting tables at Union Square Café when I was like twenty five and somebody said “Oh, you should try modeling” which had never really occurred to me, but I thought, “Well, what better time to do anything you wanted to do than when your twenty five and living in New York City?” y’know?
Yeah, of course.
So I went to a commercial agency, CED (Cunningham Ascot Depene,) and I booked jobs! At that time I was already sick of New York so I went down to south beach for one season and got a bartending gig. I thought, “I’ll just come down here and be in the sun.” and I actually worked a lot, like, doing commercial jobs, commercial print jobs.
Right.
And then I was like, “Fuck paying taxes in New York and coming to Miami in the winter. I’ll just live in Miami.”
You moved down to Miami.
Yeah. So I did really well in Miami commercially. Miami was a big market back then, it was really kinda happening. So I worked commercially for about three years and then I met a big model, a fashion model, and he introduced me to traveling abroad. I went to Europe and then got agencies in every country: Munich, Hamburg, London, Barcelona, Paris, Australia, South Africa, and then I worked a lot.
Why’d you stop?
Being gay and being a model was a really big mind-fuck for me, not that I was a big queen on set, but…
What? Why would that be a problem?
Well, I did my time with Eddie Bauer, Lands End, and then finally landed the mother of all clients because they used you for twenty years and paid five thousand dollars a day. But my days were numbered. Once they found out I was gay they just dropped me, so…
Are you serious?
Yeah, and then I became really jaded and turned off of modeling.
So then what’d you do?
So then I met Stephen (Gan) at V Magazine and he offered me a job, so I never considered going back to modeling again. But now that I’m broke it’s like a godsend. I’m really happy about it.
You’re lucky you’re a good-looking dude. My mom’s into you.
Everyone’s mom seems to be into me!
It’s the silvery mane.
It’s good money that silver hair.
Let me ask you something.
What?
Did you ever hook up with Stephen Gan?
God no! No. It’d be like lesbian sex. He’s totally my girlfriend.
Have you ever been with a lady?
Never!
Really?
Never! There was one time, like, when I was in the club scene, dealing ecstasy, in Dallas, there were all these straight guys and I’d be really close with them and…
Like, close friends you mean?
Yeah, but then they’d start getting feelings for me and then they’d be like “Oh I can’t be friends with you! I have feelings for you!” And I thought that was so stupid, but then one time I was (on ecstasy) with this girl and I started having those feelings…
What feelings?
For the first time ever I was having feelings like “Oh my god! I could totally have sex with her!” And I was totally freaked out and I did what all those guys did to me and I ended the friendship.
Dude. That’s terrible.
Yeah! I was totally freaked out!
*Major.
If you enjoyed that you should check out our new issue here!