Hides in winter's skirts
December 4, 2008 8:30 PM   Subscribe

I Know Where Summer Goes Photos by Ryan McGinley. Some nudity; fireworks; fun, longing.
posted by klangklangston (43 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite


 
Beautiful stuff. Reminds me of Sigur Ros' video for Gobbledigook (site SFW, video is not).
posted by thatbrunette at 8:39 PM on December 4, 2008


Gorgeous pics, best photo navigation ever.
posted by davey_darling at 8:59 PM on December 4, 2008


Reminds me of Sigur Ros' video for Gobbledigook (site SFW, video is not).

That was my first reaction, too.
posted by Forktine at 9:04 PM on December 4, 2008


Huh, weird. How did he figure out the images that are in my head when I listen to Endless Summer?
posted by felix betachat at 9:09 PM on December 4, 2008


That's a lot of skinny naked people.
posted by Caduceus at 9:18 PM on December 4, 2008


Reminds me of Sigur Ros' video for Gobbledigook

Well, sure — that video starts with a credit that says "inspired by and in collaboration with Ryan McGinley".
posted by nicwolff at 9:19 PM on December 4, 2008


Hey, look at the nekkid hipsters!
posted by twsf at 9:30 PM on December 4, 2008


"Epidemiological records of Barkhumpingus Pileokids, aka poison oak of the herpes blister."
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:44 PM on December 4, 2008


Twsf, it is remarkable that you've figured out that these young people are hipsters. I'm sure they never saw it coming. Please, tell me how to measure the social cachet of naked people. I am in danger of seeing images of attractive naked people on bicycles, in piles, and shooting off fireworks as images of people earnestly expressing joy and desire.
posted by goldfinches at 10:10 PM on December 4, 2008


"it is remarkable that you've figured out that these young people are hipsters.

Haircuts.
posted by klangklangston at 10:14 PM on December 4, 2008


As much as the thought of bicycling and climbing trees while nekkid makes me cringe, most of that looks like a lot of fun!
posted by Severian at 10:23 PM on December 4, 2008


klangklangston: Oh but come now, really? Dismissing someone's photography because young people with bangs appear in it? Hipster is a lazy word to begin with, and that was a lazy, lazy application of it. Haircuts? MetaFilter should be smarter than high school.
posted by goldfinches at 10:24 PM on December 4, 2008


this doesn't look like a good idea

Also, they look like hipsters to me too. Not only the haircuts, but also the fact that the guys are all so skinny.
posted by delmoi at 10:35 PM on December 4, 2008


Oh, and one of the girls is holding a cigarette. Total hipster affectation.
posted by delmoi at 10:36 PM on December 4, 2008


goldfinches, chill. klangklangston posted the FPP.
posted by Caduceus at 10:41 PM on December 4, 2008


It's hardly a dismissal of the work to remark on how closely the subjects align with a styled sort of young person. Good photos can be of goths, geeks, losers, whatever.

It is intriguing as a choice, but I doubt it was one. When in Williamsburg? And that doesn't bode well for the longevity of the photos.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:44 PM on December 4, 2008


also, don't anthropomorphize words, Metafilter should be smarter than that, lurk moar hipster noob, etc.

just getting that all out of the way.

posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:47 PM on December 4, 2008


I see what you mean, Ambrosia; but it's just very strange to me that photos which seem to go for innocence and exuberance are labeled as being about 'hipsters' because the subjects are, what, skinny? Naked? Have haircuts? It just seems like the referents of the word 'hipster' are so diffuse that it's a derogatory word that's inherently kind of slippery and imprecise.

They're really nice photos, and I didn't mean to sound so furious. Sorry, guys.
posted by goldfinches at 11:10 PM on December 4, 2008


The man in the elevator looks sad. He should try the naked bunjee jumping.
posted by longsleeves at 11:45 PM on December 4, 2008


Next up in the series, pretty white people get naked at a miniature golf course.
posted by Brocktoon at 11:49 PM on December 4, 2008


LOVE these.
posted by chuckdarwin at 2:31 AM on December 5, 2008


Well apparently I was a hipster as a child. Who knew.

These are beautiful. I was ready to snark by the second or third picture but I kept going and I'm very glad I did. Thanks for the post!
posted by Skorgu at 2:47 AM on December 5, 2008


I giggled all the way through. Because I imagined that the pictures were all post-fart.
posted by srboisvert at 3:28 AM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


Hey, you got your Sigur Ros video in my Burning Man!
posted by StandardObfuscatingProcedure at 4:32 AM on December 5, 2008


Summer goes south for the winter right?
posted by gomichild at 5:32 AM on December 5, 2008


Remember, a hipster is merely someone who is younger and skinnier than you.
posted by hermitosis at 6:33 AM on December 5, 2008


WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THE BEAR
posted by spiderwire at 6:43 AM on December 5, 2008




Perhaps it's because I didn't bother to read the artist statement, but the idea that these can be dismissed because they're naked AA shots seems facile (though certainly, some of the other work on his site is closer to that). Especially since the author is repping so hard for a trad "worthy" nude show in his most recent post. In the flash card for that show, not a single person looks happy or exuberant or anything but sombre and serious and "oh look I'm daring nude" shots. Contrast that with a fair amount of the McGinley shots where the models don't seem self-conscious about their nudity at all.

I'd also note that for all the "dated" bit about hipster styling, first these obviously weren't taken in Williamsburg, second, it's the saturation levels and processing that mark these as contemporary, not the models. A different set of filters and stock and these could be '70s photos. They're not, in fact, that far off of Jock Sturges (except everyone's of age).
posted by klangklangston at 8:11 AM on December 5, 2008


Boring skinny naked person, boring skinny naked person, boring skinny naked person, guy being mauled by a bear, boring skinny naked person...
posted by jacquilynne at 9:21 AM on December 5, 2008


If all you got out of this was "boring skinny naked person," you should probably be working on your body image issues rather than snarking.
posted by klangklangston at 10:24 AM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


these obviously weren't taken in Williamsburg

pff. I've never been to Williamsburg. I would have no idea. I didn't mean literal Williamsburg, and does there even exist a literal Williamsburg? Isn't the whole place more of an idea, a sensibility, an ethos, a lee in which to shiver and kindle, an artfully tattered ironic construct with some streets to smoke in or something? Is there a mayor?

I could take a fine-toothed comb and extricate the hipsterly strands of the set, the Kirsten Dunstalike is kind of hilarious in that respect, Converse, rollerskates, maybe these are eternal. Even if you allow that they ARE "hipsters," this is a fun excercise, since "hipsters" are a, shall we say, highly clothed construct. Perhaps these are fashion nudes. ;)

Anyway, art photographers who predominantly do portraits of people who resemble the expected social milieu of art photographers get a bored look askance from me, though the style of these is, all in all, appealingly chic and more substantively romantic than "hipsterism" ever tries to be.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:29 AM on December 5, 2008


Am I the only one who winces a little about the whole idea of sparklers near tender exposed bits?
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:38 AM on December 5, 2008


Am I the only one who winces a little about the whole idea of sparklers near tender exposed bits?

Nope, I thought more than once "dude, you're going to blow that thing clean off if you're not careful."
posted by TungstenChef at 1:23 PM on December 5, 2008


If all you got out of this was "boring skinny naked person," you should probably be working on your body image issues rather than snarking.

That was really more of a comment on the 'holy fuck where did the *bear* come from?' aspect of that one photo than anything else.

And there are a few photos in the set I thought were engaging, including the one you linked, but overall, I didn't get the sense of joie de vivre they seemed to be meant to evoke. Most of them seemed quite dull.

And then all of a sudden there was a bear.
posted by jacquilynne at 2:09 PM on December 5, 2008


I would like to reiterate: WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THE BEAR
posted by spiderwire at 2:58 PM on December 5, 2008


He takes such beautiful photos. I love these more and more every time I see them, despite myself.

What feels fresh and worthwhile is that, while undeniably "hipster", the photos are unabashedly sentimental and real, evoking emotions not usually associated with hipsters. There's something loving and human and honest captured in these photos. I hope this is the direction hipsterdom is taking. They'd/We'd all be better for it.
posted by wemayfreeze at 3:09 PM on December 5, 2008


And then there's a bear.
posted by wemayfreeze at 3:09 PM on December 5, 2008


To be fair, I have absolutely no idea how that bear got in.
posted by klangklangston at 3:54 PM on December 5, 2008


Ditto on the OMG WTF BEAR....and I think it's valid to say that something is lost when a photographer limits his subject pool exclusively to, "My young beautiful friends from art school"....whether they're naked or not.
posted by availablelight at 4:46 PM on December 5, 2008 [1 favorite]


I do not heart running weiners.

Though to be fair, I'm sure some do.
posted by bwg at 5:26 PM on December 5, 2008


I didn't like these. Ryan McGinley is no Bernard Faucon.
posted by dydecker at 6:29 AM on December 6, 2008


Thanks for the link, klangston. Some of these were published in a German magazin a month ago and I liked them very much. It's nice to have them available on the net.

Regarding the bear: Here's a translation of the question about it from said article:

- In one picture a grown bear hugs a man

- That was in Minnesota. We went to the house of this guy, he's a little crazy. An animal trainer. All these animals live with him. Der bear in the picture is a 450 pound black bear. The thing is, you have a piece of sugar in your mouth, the bear comes and kisses you and takes the sugar. Here he takes the head of my friend into his paws. Interesting photo.
posted by Glow Bucket at 3:39 PM on December 6, 2008 [1 favorite]


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