The Eye: Ryan McGinley
By: Chris Klimek
Special to The Examiner
March 8, 2009
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| Untitled (Morrissey 1), Ryan McGinley, Chromogenic print, 2004-6, Ann and Mel Schaffer Family Collection; © Ryan McGinley -- Courtesy Photo |
WASHINGTON — Name: Frank Goodyear
Occupation: Associate Curator of Photography, National Portrait Gallery
Residence: Arlington
What I want to tell you about this picture: This is a self-portrait of Ryan being tackled onstage by a security guard at a Morrissey concert in 2004. To the right is Morrissey, mic in hand, performing.
I love this picture for the boldness of its scale and for its extraordinary tonality. I feel transported by this picture to this place. I can hear the noise of the crowd and the music. I think there’s an intimate connection McGinley achieves in this portrait between the subject and the viewer of the image.
Morrissey is an important musician for McGinley. McGinley talks about how as a teenager, he listened to The Smiths, the group Morrissey fronted, for many years. He’s attended many a Morrissey concert since that time.
As a photographer, Ryan is not simply an observer of the world around us, but a participant in that world. He has a tremendous enthusiasm for communities of young people. His portraiture is about people, including himself, performing for the camera: He’s shot skateboarding groups, road-trippers on a van trip across the country, club culture in New York. He’s interested in creating an art that responds to youth culture today. All of the portraits in this series suggest the varying states of ecstasy that the attendees at these concerts are feeling about Morrissey, and about his music, and about the communities of which they’re a part. And here’s Ryan rushing the stage.
It’s a really big picture — it measures 47 inches high by 60 inches wide.
[McGinley] will do experimental prints in all kinds of sizes to see which is appropriate for a given image. Because he’s working digitally, he’s also able to introduce a whole different tonal range through digital means.
If you go
“Portraiture Now: Feature Photography”
Where: The National Portrait Gallery, Eighth and F Streets NW
When: Through Sept. 27
Info: Free; 202-633-1000; npg.si.edu
(Morrissey will perform at the Warner Theatre on March 14.)
