For photographer Ryan McGinley, his work on nudes in the great outdoors of North America is the road he pursues

Ryan McGinley is renowned as a photographer not just in the United States, but internationally too among his generation, not forgetting among Japanese photographers as well where he has exerted much influence.

It was while I was still living in New York, I had the opportunity to visit Ryan’s apartment for a magazine assignment as he lived relatively close to my neighborhood, . Since then I have known him for about 15 years. Taking one step into the clutter that is “Ryan’s World”, along with his photographs are clippings of The Smiths’ frontman Morrissey pasted all over the place, a shelf filled to the brim with what seem to be cult DVDs taking up one side of the apartment. It was pretty much the kind of room to expect from a sensitive, music and movie loving man.

Even when I caught sight of him at an art gallery on a different day, I vividly remember to this day the image of a man, headphones around his neck, in his own world immersed in the photography works in front of him. There was this aura as if to say “do not approach me”.The interview we had was in contrast to the man at the gallery. Despite his youth, he promptly gave answers like it was second nature, and while I caught my breath, he rapidly fired questions at me along the lines of what movies I had seen or liked. I guess that is something that has not changed about him even today.

It was in this apartment that Ryan showed me a small 50 page photobook he made by hand in 2002 titled ‘The Kids Are Alright’. Together with his friends from downtown, he appeared in and took everyday scenes of his life. Having studied design and photography at university, he laid out the snaps he amassed and made them carefully into book covers at the copy center. It was these covers he sent to the editors of his favorite magazines and to people in the art world, and amazingly, the following year, still somewhat fresh out of university, he was contacted by the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York where he became a sensation by becoming the youngest person to hold a solo exhibition at the gallery.

The street snaps of those years lessened over time following that exhibition. It was while in search of a new project where before long, he announced what was to mark his entry in the modern art world – ‘Road Trip’ – considered to this day to be his masterpiece. For around 10 years between June and August since 2004, he has headed out on a trip in modified bus with model and staff in tow, capturing a series of nudes with the great nature across the United States acting as the backdrop.

What he had taken was reminiscent of Adam and Eve in the Bible; a completely naked couple climbing trees or running through golden fields of barley. Although of young people brimming with carefree innocence and freedom, the dreamy colors and scenes make these aesthetic images blur the lines between what is real and what is imagined.

Also, for his major exhibition held at the Opera City Art Gallery in Tokyo in 2016, along with stand-out pieces from the ‘Road Trip’ series was a new series of works exhibited; the red, brown and wheat impression of ‘Fall’ and the white and blue snow and ice of ‘Winter’. Finally, there is the ambitious undertaking of ‘Yearbook’, an enormous wall covering a 30 meter wall filled with nude images of young people. We talked to Ryan in front of this outstanding, colorful and striking work, where having been a few years since his last visit to Japan, his scope and presence seemed to have grown.

– Long time no see. So what is the concept behind this Tokyo exhibition?

“I wanted to personally select works that I wanted to exhibit from my early period in 2002 all the way to my most recent that I took in the fall and winter of 2015, but in a simple layout without putting up anything deemed unnecessary like extra walls and things. This wall of 500 portraits is actually meant to be an installation of photographs filled around a small room, but I heard that exhibiting photographs of genitalia is forbidden in Japan, and although it wasn’t something I wanted, the use of a wall got around the issue (of not showing them) through a lot of ingenuity (laughs).”

– It is an incredible number, and they are all completely nude. However they are not professional models. How did you come about finding these people?

“A casting director finds these people on the street and at concert venues where I then photographed about 10 of them each time at a pace of twice a month. It’s no surprise that most of these people aren’t used to posing for nude photography, but I like how that feeling of awkwardness is the opposite of the portraits you find in the ‘yearbooks’ of high school and college graduation photo albums.”

– Your recent work is what could be described as an ice world, while beautiful seems to be fairly dangerous places to choose to shoot nude photography.

“I went to into the mountains located in the northernmost region of New York State to take those images. As photographs they are truly beautiful and dramatic, but the fact is it was below freezing and the models were completely nude, making them hardcore conditions for a shooting location. In any case, safety for the models was by far our number one concern. To do that we had an insulated tent heated by a basic powerful heater and made them wear stockings that resembled bare legs. We shot at most only a few minutes – and looking closely at their bodies in the images reveal the physical signs of being without inhibitions in that time – but even this gives us the feeling of their true selves.”

– I believe that you previously worked with film cameras but you completely switched over to digital from 2010.

“Yes, all of my work is taken with a digital camera, so for the winter shoots I took as much as I could in the short space of time we had with any adjustments and image treatments done when I got home to my New York studio. (While browsing through SEIN) Do I know about SIGMA? Of course I know of them and I have long been curious of their cameras and lenses but unfortunately I haven’t used them yet. I do have a great interest in them, so next time I would love to try out their cameras.”