In the spirit of my last update, "The Decline of Fashion Photography," please allow me to direct your attention to Ryan McGinley, a young photographer riding the crest of a hype-wave.If you've got a few moments, you might click on this Slate.com article. After reading all about Mr. McGinley and checking out his work--work that earned him, amongst many other things, the International Center of Photography's Young Photographer of the Year award--ask yourself if you believe the bar has been lowered? I mean seriously lowered.
It's not that I think young Master Ryan's work sucks, I don't, I just don't see what drives the hype? Oh well. Sometimes, I suppose, it's who ya know and who ya bl... uhh, never mind that last comment. Some things just are what they are and I'm not going to dwell on them. Besides, I'm already in a pissy mood because AT&T (formerly Cingular Wireless)SUCKS!!!!!
Anyway, decide for yourself. Once again, here's the Ryan McGinley link.
The gratuitous eye-candy at the top with the (oh so cliche) finger-in-the-mouth thing going on and who has nothing whatsoever to do with this update is Paola. Paola's from Ipanema Beach, Brazil... but I shot her, about a month ago, in a studio in Koreatown, near downtown L.A.
10 comments:
Couldn't agree more! I see this all the time. Some bloke comes out of art school with a right dominant brain, takes some photos without any understanding of the technicalities (or deliberately ignores them) and suddenly he is the next big thing. Some photographs that have won portrait of the year awards here in Australia would not have won the B grade competition in my local camera club. This guy's certainly nothing special! When you view his photographs, do they invoke any sort of emotion? Not to me they don't!
Jimmy, yeah I agree. call it hype, a trend, a flash in the pan so to speak, but it doesn't work for me.
what it does offer is a different view that is raw and unpretentious. It offers a "fresh" style for an industry that will forever be consumed with capturing a new look.
Best of luck to Mr. McGinley, his timing was great, but the future will tell if his abilities are lasting.
i agree, that's not anything i'd be proud to tell anyone i took. i guess i'm ready to go pro?
I think that among famous photographers there are of two kinds:
First those who are really good ones, with vision, skills, they're masters in all they make: always.
Second those who one day somebody saw a pic, liked it, won a couple of prizes....and from that moment on, no matter what they do everyone says is great, though it may be a shit.
Sorry if I haven't explained myself well, but English is not my mother tongue.
people like him because his stuff captures a sorta realness and is a scene from his everyday life. not everyone loves the ultra shiny models surrounded by tons of lights in a studio look that magazines always shove down our throats. its good to see people like McGinley, Richardson, Kern, Boogie, Naz, Rikki Kasso etc.. doing something a little bit different. younger people are getting tired of the airbrushed look and want something more real, everyday life sorta stuff.
don't get me wrong the work you do here is awesome but the pretty girl glamour look has become the standard so people are going to go crazy for anything that looks different.
It's just another example of greatness-by-context.
I've taken pictures that I defy ANYBODY to distinguish from Mr. McGinley's avant-garde snapshots. However, I don't show them to people. Because they're crappy snapshots. The art world, as a prior commenter pointed out, is consumed by the Next New Thing. It's his turn. Right place, right time. Lucky bastard.
M
who lowered the bar? maybe you did. point a beauty dish 45 degrees left of camera, a few kickers to the side and behind, maybe a hair light...'stick your ass out honey, make sure you emphasize those big titties of yours, oh yeah and pout those lips..."
that link you posted isn't telling the whole story about this guy. you need to go to his site. he's doing some creative things with light. if his work doesn't evoke some sort of emotion from you, you may need to check your pulse.
this guy is good!
that link you posted isn't telling the whole story about this guy. you need to go to his site. he's doing some creative things with light.
i did. a lot of what i saw was flat with little contrast, often over-exposed, odd color tones, looked like it had been shot at a very noisy/grainy iso with a point-n-shoot, and with a "snapshot" feel to them... mostly of young people partying in varying stages of dress/undress. nothing i saw evoked a sense of "great photographer" in me.
btw, i don't claim "great photographer" status. i simply shoot what my clients expect (pay me) to shoot and in a style they want to see. but if i suddenly decided to shoot something very different, and i shit-canned the beauty dish and all that stuff, it still wouldn't necessarily make me a "great photographer." if i started shooting b&W shots of euro-model types, naked, with dark unshaved muffs, and with guns and in garters, it would not make me a helmut newton
Look, I'm not comparing this guy to Picasso because the "Picasso of Photography" he is not, yet, but I'm quite certain that he realizes the 'technical failings' in these photographs. After all, he did spend quite a few hours in a pretty prestigious art program learning the technical side of this stuff. Like Picasso, he likely has a shit load of 'technically sound' shots that make 'real' photographers happy. But also like Picasso, eventually the geniuses of the game venture beyond the conventional to places make some uncomfortable, unsure, and sometimes confounded. It's not about what he's doing wrong. It's about what he's doing differently.
anonymous-- as i recall, the article said he was a graphic design student at parsons, not a photography major.
his work, mostly depicting youthful debauchery, IMO, doesn't come close to some of his predecessors who shot similarly themed sort of stuff. Larry Clark comes to mind and this kid certainly ain't no Larry Clark.
perhaps there should be a noted difference between a photographer and someone who uses a camera to record images that become social (socially-relevant?) statements with a graphic design twist?
Anyway, i certainly appreciate your take on this. Opposing views are what make this stuff... i guess just about everything else too... interesting. God! If we all agreed on everything how fucking boring would it all be?
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