Quote

The cool part about New York is that you can do that. You can talk to all the people you admire.

Ryan McGinley

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Ryan McGinley
Age: 47
Born: 1977
Born: October 17
Photographer
Ramsey
New Jersey
Admire
Cool
York
Talk
Part
People

More quotes by Ryan McGinley

Image
The cool thing for me about moving to New York was that I got to create a new family.
Ryan McGinley
Image
When I was in art school, the photo kids were separated from the rest. If you did sculpture or painting or graphic design, you were all taking the same classes, but the photographers just went straight into photography.
Ryan McGinley
Image
You find the people that you need to find. There's this gravitational pull.
Ryan McGinley
Image
I'm going to put every aspect of myself out into the world and try to convey it through photography.
Ryan McGinley
Image
From 8 to 19, I was skateboarding every single day. That was my life. I worked at a skate shop. I watched skate videos.
Ryan McGinley
Image
I spent all of my money on film. I remember I would do these set-design jobs or transcribe or just anything to get, like, a $100 check and go immediately to Adorama and buy expired film.
Ryan McGinley
Image
I think a lot about control nowadays, and I really want to let go and just be more in the moment.
Ryan McGinley
Image
Everyone started to have a camera. That's when I started to travel outside of New York and go into nature.
Ryan McGinley
Image
Most of the e-mails I get nowadays are from students who ask me how I got my start. In truth its from having a really supportive family but also having a good patron who will help you - like financing all those early trips I took.
Ryan McGinley
Image
A lot of people, even my parents, thought, Art school, I don't know. We'll support you but the success rate for artists is really slim.
Ryan McGinley
Image
Just being friends with people now for over 15 years, you realize what we all came out of. What we came out of was the intense feeling of growing up. It sounds kind of cliché, but it's true.
Ryan McGinley
Image
I was studying graphic design at the time, when negative scanners and all that stuff was coming out, and you could do it all in your apartment. So I would shoot, make contact sheets, scan all the cool negatives, and make all these zines and books of my photos to give to my friends. I was really into zine- and bookmaking from skate culture.
Ryan McGinley
Image
There was no luxury. I never got on an airplane until I was 18. We drove everywhere. My dad was like, Waste not, want not.
Ryan McGinley
Image
All my work, really, is based on my brothers and sisters. I had so many adventures with them and a big part of the work is to recreate those. It's easy for me to be around a lot of people, because I can retreat. I can watch everything.
Ryan McGinley
Image
I'm not going to hide behind anything.
Ryan McGinley
Image
A lot of my close friends have committed suicide or died of heroin overdoses.
Ryan McGinley
Image
I'm interested in reaching the masses with my work. It's one of my goals.
Ryan McGinley
Image
Just having the camera, being able to pull back from situations and be an observer, it saved my life... I realised I could find these intimate moments and that people trusted me. That, basically, my camera was magic.
Ryan McGinley
Image
Whatever emotions you're going through, you somehow seek out the people that are going through similar emotions or that maybe have something you need.
Ryan McGinley
Image
In a lot of ways I look at these old photos, and I don't know if I would have been able to communicate with these people on this level if I didn't have a camera. I think I would still be so shy.
Ryan McGinley