Ryan McGinley

American, born 1977

Ryan McGinley burst into prominence in his early twenties after circulating copies of a self-published portfolio of photographs. He is has since become known as the youngest artist—at the age of 23—to present a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. His work orbits around the life and youth of family and friends in contemporary culture, and particularly in the Lower East Side. While his early work featured more candid and documentary subjects, he began to explore since 2003 the possibility of photographing directed situations. He has since become known for studio portraits and landscapes with bodies in action or lost in contemplation. McGinley’s models are usually nude, though never sexualized. McGinley has said, “I think most people look at [the nudity] sexually, but I think everyone looks sexier with their clothes on.”