mono.kultur #27: Ryan McGinley

The American photographer Ryan McGinley features in the mono.kultur #27, Spring 2011 issue. McGinley’s colourful and vivid photographs capture the zeitgeist of a generation like no other. Celebrating the sweet and fleeting state of youth, his images are suffused with colour, light and energy. Naked kids climbing trees, running through the desert, rolling down hills, suspended in the air, diving into lakes, leaping through fireworks – there’s a lightness and carelessness and beauty to McGinley’s images that is utterly addictive. His powerful depictions of youth in the here and now are a raw and personal declaration of love to life with all its highs and lows.

The photographer was the youngest artist to exhibit at the prestigious Whitney Museum in New York and has been enjoying a stellar career, equally successful in the world of fine arts as with his commercial work that has won numerous awards.

In a refreshingly frank and honest conversation, Ryan McGinley talked with mono.kultur about his first 10 years of an astonishing career, his memories of the late Dash Snow and why every day is an adventure.

Interview by Martina Kix
Photography by Ryan McGinley
Design by Eva Gonçalves & Kai von Rabenau