I was never told, "Fags are going to hell." You just didn't talk... by Ryan McGinley

I was never told, "Fags are going to hell." You just didn't talk about it.

Ryan McGinley

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You have to be able to observe life as if you were a camera all the time, constantly looking at light and the way that things are placed and the way people hold themselves. You need the ability to see something in someone or something that no one else really sees and be able to bring that to light. Basically, you have to be an obsessive crazy person.

crazy light people

My photographs are a celebration of life, fun and the beautiful. They are a world that doesn't exist. A fantasy. Freedom is real. There are no rules. The life I wish I was living.

real fun beautiful

I think that's an important lesson for young people who want to be artists: You have to find someone who believes in you and who will help you find that time where you don't have to think about a job but just making work. If I didn't have those people in my life, I wouldn't be in the position I'm in.

jobs believe thinking

I got a lot of attention when I was really young, and people have it in their minds that I'm still 24 years old. So I made the decision that I had photographed everything I was interested in in New York. New York is a town you have to embrace, but you also need to leave. I may revisit it one day, but for me it's a place to live rather than one to make work in.

decision mind people

I have a really big family, and pretty much all my work is about my brothers and sisters. I'm the youngest of eight - my mom had seven kids in seven years, and then she had me 11 years later - so I was basically raised by all these teenagers.

teenager mom brother

It's weird being a photographer because you really have to divorc... by Ryan McGinley

It's weird being a photographer because you really have to divorce yourself from the image.

divorce photographer

I've been attracted to Kate Moss since I was a teenager. by Ryan McGinley

I've been attracted to Kate Moss since I was a teenager.

moss kate teenager

You find the people that you need to find. There's this gravitati... by Ryan McGinley

You find the people that you need to find. There's this gravitational pull.

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.

intimate-moments magic people

I don't want to be an artist that gets stuck doing one thing. I don't want to be an artist who people look back at and say, 'His early work was really great.

artist people looks

I'm making the art for me first. I'm making it because these are the pictures I want to see. I'm making pictures that don't yet exist.

want art firsts

What I really believe is that there are no coincidences anymore. by Ryan McGinley

What I really believe is that there are no coincidences anymore.

coincidence believe

I want to venture into film more, and I think that a nice way to transition into doing that would be a documentary. I think it would be interesting to find one person that really fascinated me or maybe a band and travel with them, but I don't think I could do it like I used to do it.

nice interesting thinking

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.

supportive mail helping

I slowly began making a few photos with animals over the years, and I liked how people reacted to them. When I would have the animals on set, I'd notice the way the models would interact with them and there was so much true emotion that you rarely see between two human beings.

animal two years

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.

growing-up people years

I know that my mind is so A.D.D., and I want instant gratification - and photography can provide me with that - but at some point, I want to make an independent feature.

independent photography mind

I can work with shyness, but for the most part I want people to feel comfortable with me. It's really more about the photographer feeing comfortable right when they walk in that makes the subject feel comfortable.

photographer want people

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.

brother adventure people

A lot of my close friends have committed suicide or died of heroi... by Ryan McGinley

A lot of my close friends have committed suicide or died of heroin overdoses.

heroin close-friends suicide