Ryan McGinley

Ryan McGinley

Contemporary American photographer
These works are from his 'Adventures' and have been referred to as Evidence of Fun
Sources - http://www.vice.com/read/ryan-mcginleys-yearbook-opens-at-team-gallery
http://www.vice.com/read/ryan-mcginleys-advice-to-young-photographers

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/celebrities/201404/ryan-mcginley-photographer

An article by Alice Gregory published online through GQ provides a really comprehensive discussion into McGinley's artistic trajectory and he is a HIGHLY accomplished photographer. 

• 2003 Solo Show at the Whitney Museum of American Art (he was 25) 
• 2007 Young photographer of the year
• has been titled the most important photographer in America

Photo editor of Vice Matthew Leifeit did a write up on a speech that McGinley gave at his graduation ceremony and he had had some really wonderful words to share that provide a great insight into how he approaches his photography -

"Everyone always says it helps to picture [the audience] naked to calm my nerves. Unfortunately, that’s another day at work for me."

Everyone I shoot is part of downtown's creative community—painters, musicians, dancers, writers, sculptors, photographers. Those are the people who understand what I do and are excited to pose nude for me.

Here is another piece of fabulous advice -

"Be busy. Seek and find a way to do what it is you want to do. Identify what that thing is and do it. Don’t stand around too long having conversations about it. Do it. Refine it. Do it more. Try it a different way. Keep at it until you break through to the next level. Don’t talk or think yourself out of doing it. Put one foot in front of the other and let it happen organically."

Another article reports that over the last ten year McGinley's photos have evolved - his work now is more ambitious and complex. The images are the results of road trips across America; the forms of the models make the images scream as they run, jump, dive, fall, zip-line. Then there is the addition of colour and light - dreamy, surreal and other worldy.

Punchy and exotic; I imagine that these photos are created in far away places void of any realistic responsibility. Bodies are flying and falling, in the presence of wildlife and nature, there is a definite sense of freedom.