His work is not an honest depiction of his “worth”. He is not the “hipster” or the archetype subculture “cool kid” he makes you think he is. He grew up in New Jersey from a pretty well off family.

THIS IS THE FACT:
He is a 30-something man who admits to not even knowing how to use a manual camera. He uses a point and shoot to take pictures of 18 year olds who he pays THOUSANDS of dollars with money he made shooting commercial ads for products like Dentyne Ice. He makes his models take photos, too, and everyone puts their film into the same bag at the end of the day.

AND WHAT THE FUCK IS MOONMILK ANYWAY?

someone gets it!

If his work were mature it would be boring. The interest is in it’s youth.
.

The look of his photographs being not technically accurate is his look. It’s nostalgic, lovely, innocent and sexual all at the same time. You are right.

He wasn’t in the right place at the right time to get these campaigns, as some photographers are guessing. The brand wanted his look- and probably for good reasons.

I’ve been reading the Huffingtonpost lately, and there is a story about NY billboards, with sexy jeans/fashion ads. They are blatantly sexual, lit slick, with high fashion models, all in various states of undress. We’ve all seen it done a million times.

McGinley’s ads look nothing like that, and make the brand pop amoung the competition. It is a clever placement of things being toned down and simple, un techinical, and nostalgic in a time when many people are longing for the past and better times.

Not sure why you’d hire the same photographer as your competitor, however, when you compare the fashion billboards all over NYC that are on the Huffingtonpost, they were probably shot by different photographers, but may as well have been shot by the same one.

(*Just like some photographers use their iPhones. Except for some reason a photographer using his/her iPhone to take snapshots is considered “revolutionary” whereas using a point-and-shoot is somehow considered cheating or, at the very least, not revolutionary.)

The threads on this blog have a half life shorter than fresh baked bread, so I don’t know if anyone is still reading…

I’ve taken a few days to really think about the work. Maybe I am missing something. So I took a step back and looked for other ways of seeing. What are others seeing (or seeing into) these images that I may have missed?

Context is important. The advertising usage as well as the art/fashion interest is very typical. Nothing new, referencing much of my earlier take. Here’s where I see a rift. For a conscious artist, one would think understanding context to be important. Pictorially these images reference cliche methods of communication often used and consumed widely in the genres referenced. But I don’t see much new added – or unique “commentary” created. Instead the images play up easy visual devices commonly employed. The artist would certainly have awareness of how our culture consumes some of the themes he employs. Are we amazed with his fortuity? (His work just happens to fit into fashion/advertising media so well :) ).

Had these images been done in a world which did not already have such a strong history (context) of use, I would see these images as brilliant. Instead, I see the artist just caught up in common consumer aesthetics. Witness the world we live within. Is the latest celebrity train wreck acting out a commentary, or just caught up in these times? That guy driving the car in a high speed chase, commandeering all network channel coverage – is he an artist? Is the media event of the chase his “commentary”? There is something amazing to behold here, but it is not an artist’s commentary. More the phenomena of how the -homogenized- consumer culture functions today.

An additional thought. Are the people posting here energized by the *artist* or by the cultural/industry context? Certainly the artist can ride along with this wave of interest and cash in, but is he the main focus of the interest as has been suggested?

Leonardo Davinci didn’t paint most of his own paintings.

Nor did most of the other renaissance artists.

Does anyone pay attention to who’s behind the camera in movies? no, its the director…

this is why art direction tends to get more respect than the crew carrying it out…

Well Said!

Well said!

A good completion to the post on Red cams …
For sure you need xxx MP equipment to get advertising jobs :-)

Sometimes all you need is a pinhole (someone who believes in your work/style may help a bit *smile)

Maybe Wrangler shoud strike back and hire Nadav Kander for their next campaign …

cheers

because we go swimming with our jeans on? Why the hell would you take off all your clothes *except your jeans, if you wanted to go jump in a lake. I mean, that would be all cold when you came out. And it’s raining.

“We are idiots”

“We have colds”

>
The Wrangler campaign looks a lot darker to me, and ignoring the similarity of “cute young people with no tops on” are not as similar as I was expecting from the comments.

http://hypebeast.com/2009/06/ryan-mcginley-for-wrangler-ad-campaign/

http://fashionindie.com/ad-dict-levis-go-forth-by-ryan-mcginley/

RDP

Am I the only one who is not going to lose any sleep thinking if wrangler or levis got ripped off and about their brand identity? Who fucking cares. I’m not even a big fan of his work, but come on, stop crying like little kids. If you hate it so much, go do a better job.

None taken.

Sorry. No offense intended, but you’re not as established as Ryan (and neither am I and neither is Rob, even).

I forgot to mention before: how many people posting here have had solo shows at the Whitney?

I believe the two campaigns are way too close to forge unique brand messages. For my money, the image style fits Levi’s better than Wrangler but that’s just my opinion.

http://creativity-online.com/work/view?seed=488e9e5c

It is on Creativity, if anyone here is a subscriber. Different director and team, but the creative direction matches the still campaign.

I will be going to a seminar with Dan Wieden in early August. If I get a chance, and remember this, I will ask about the ideas behind the Levi’s campaign.