The youngest artist ever to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art — way back in 2003, when he was only 25 — Ryan McGinley has been a radical darling of the art world ever since. A chronicler of edgy youth culture, McGinley started out documenting his pals populating New York’s downtown art scene and then broadened his focus with summer road trips that captured free spirited, often-naked, guys and gals running through wide open landscapes, exploring underground caves, jumping off cliffs, climbing trees, and cuddling with creatures of the wild. His young, sexy models are willing to do whatever daredevil tricks deemed necessary to make the photos click.
Capsulizing the whole breadth of his career, Rizzoli has just released a large-scale monograph — titled Whistle for the Wind — that brings together McGinley’s colorful imagery in a visually compelling design and features a chummy conversation between the venturesome photographer and the equally adventurous filmmaker Gus Van Sant. “Whomever I’m photographing, I sort of fall in love with, or rather my camera falls in love with them,” the artist tells Van Sant. “It could be a boy or a girl, because it’s all a fantasy. It’s fiction.” Click through to view some of our favorite fictions from the book — compliments of McGinley’s keen eye and his camera’s loving lens.
Ryan McGinley, Coco’s Cliff, 2008. © Ryan McGinley: Whistle for the Wind, Rizzoli New York, 2012
Ryan McGinley, Highway, 2007. © Ryan McGinley: Whistle for the Wind, Rizzoli New York, 2012
Ryan McGinley, India (Coyote), 2010. © Ryan McGinley: Whistle for the Wind, Rizzoli New York, 2012
Ryan McGinley, Eric (Glowing), 2004. © Ryan McGinley: Whistle for the Wind, Rizzoli New York, 2012
Ryan McGinley, Alex (Giant Explosion), 2010. © Ryan McGinley: Whistle for the Wind, Rizzoli New York, 2012
Ryan McGinley, Parakeets, 2011. © Ryan McGinley: Whistle for the Wind, Rizzoli New York, 2012
Ryan McGinley, Bathtub, 2005. © Ryan McGinley: Whistle for the Wind, Rizzoli New York, 2012
Ryan McGinley, Marcel (Hidden Reflection), 2009. © Ryan McGinley: Whistle for the Wind, Rizzoli New York, 2012
Ryan McGinley, Lily (Black Eye), 2005. © Ryan McGinley: Whistle for the Wind, Rizzoli New York, 2012
Ryan McGinley, Matt (Scar), 2010. © Ryan McGinley: Whistle for the Wind, Rizzoli New York, 2012
Ryan McGinley, Falling Pink Sunset, 2006. © Ryan McGinley: Whistle for the Wind, Rizzoli New York, 2012
Ryan McGinley, Fireworks, 2002. © Ryan McGinley: Whistle for the Wind, Rizzoli New York, 2012