8 sept 2020

Generation 2000, New York youth by photographer Ryan McGinley

When he was just 25 years old Ryan McGinley presented “The Kids Are Alright” at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, a powerful portrait of New York youth that was as candid as it was crude. Today he’s back with “The Kids Were Alright”, a collection of 1600 shots that are just as subversive, taken between 1998 and 2003.

Since his first solo show “The Kids Are Alright” in 2003, Ryan McGinley and his teen photography hasn’t stopped capturing imaginations. Now after his famed shots that caught generation 9/11 on film, the photographer is back with “The Kids Were Alright” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver. The show features 1600 images taken between 1998 and 2003, a veritable portrait of a New York youth galvanised by a desire for freedom and a thirst for limitless experimentation. Similar to the ambiance of director Larry Clark, his snapshots and nude photography oscillate between a visceral lighting, iridescent filters and pastel colours. Intimate, sensual and raw, his images will also be bound in a book for the occasion with the same title by publishing house Rizzoli. 

 

“The Kids Were Alright”, Museum of Contemporary Art of Denver, until 17th august 2017.

“The Kids Were Alright”, Rizzoli editions booki.