Ryan McGinley

 

 

 

Ryan McGinley uses photography to document the bizarre life in a metropolis like New York. His life and work converge in hip-hop and graffiti, the gay atmosphere of the East Village, the art world and the "wild" night life of his friends all of which he gathers and collects each moment. Like Nan Goldin, McGinley is an active part of the culture that he usually photographs. His "models" seem, with time, to become more familiar: the repetitive obsessiveness that he uses to photograph their daily life and their excesses of drugs and alcohol is both moving and emotional. His view is unique because he is part of the subculture that he photographs. Strangely enough the representation of the excessive life of these young people emanates a very special carelessness and optimism. The dreams and expectations that twenty-year-olds cultivate are destined to be accomplished or to turn out to be a dissapointment: the artist with his photos seems to tell us that no matter if you live in New York or in any other city in the world every moment of your life should be preciously preserved. His work has the great credit to document an age.