Friday, March 19, 2010

The Ryan McGinley Process


I took out so many books to teach myself photography. Funny that every book said the same thing. "Take hundreds of pictures but only show your audience the good ones" You could take a 100 photos, but only let your viewers believe you took 10 amazing shots.

Ryan McGinley does the opposite. In fact the photographer's process is very much an important part of his youthful dreamlike photographs. "McGinley's portraits are the result of a meticulous studio practice, in which thousands of images are taken of each sitter; each shoot eventually being edited down to it's one defining "moment"

I have always loved Ryan's dreamlike style, but his willingness to expose his process has somewhat taken the mystery out of his photographs for me. However you can't say that McGinley isn't obsessed; and obsession has always been a recurring theme for so many successful artists.
About portrait above:
Photograph taken from "Everyone Knows This is Nowhere"
Exhibition at Team Gallery in NYC until April 13th.

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