Ryan McGinley (opinion)
OPINION
The GQ online article about American photographer Ryan McGinley titled 'Naked and Famous'. Written by Alison Gregory in 2014, the author states that, "McGinley's vision has evolved and expanded into a tidal wave of influence, affecting the look of art, advertising, music videos, film, even Instagram—and making him arguably the most important photographer in America."
A bold statement.
Firstly, there is nothing new in the style or subject matter presented in McGinley's work with similarities to that of many other photographers, including Uta Barth, David Bailey and Nan Goldin. Although there are some lovely images, most of the work looks to like nothing more than smut.
Portraying extremes in a body of work (young and beautiful, old and fat, the disfigured, the disadvantaged), that which makes us feel better about our greed and the insatiable desire for fame, beauty, wealth, acceptance and fit into that society/social conditioning deems worthy.
Perhaps the popularity or approval of such works is in direct relation to political correctness and the insatiable infliction of "middle-class guilt" on today's society. Alternatively, could the lack of objection is driven by fear to protest this zeitgeist. This hypothesis can be applied to countless artists today.
Sitting through so many classes with feminist threads raises the question of how works such as McGinley's receive the accolades that they do. Perhaps the day will come where people have to stand by their work – present and accountable for itself.
20 January 2022
McGinley’s photography is very white-middle class. The New York Times (Gefter 2007) claims McGinley “paid each model a day rate and paid for everyone’s food and lodging, as well as the flights home”, further quoting McGinley as stating, “a three-month trip it comes close to $100,000 for everything.”
Relevance to practice
There are similarities in composition. I do like McGinley's soft-focus work and use of scale.
Keywords
Ryan McGinley, GQ, Nude, Porn, Social, Fashionable, Questionable
References
Gregory, A 2014, 'Ryan McGinley: Naked and Famous', GQ Magazine, viewed 17 May 2020, <https://www.gq.com/story/ryan-mcginley-photographer>
Gefter, Philip. 2007. "A Young Man With An Eye, And Friends Up A Tree (Published 2007)". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/arts/design/06geft.html.