“He’s sweet and smart, a musician who’s very fashionable, well travelled and well hung,” says Ryan McGinley of his relationship with boyfriend Marc. Those who follow Ryan on Instagram will likely know this about Marc already, save perhaps for the latter point. Approaching his candid, iPhone photography with the fervour of his ambitious, professional film and digital photography, Ryan’s account is awash with beautiful portraits and intimate moments shared between the two. “We’ve been dating for three years. He’s a blonde California artist from around San Francisco. His grandmother and father went to Stanford University — I always joke around with him and tell him they created him in the Stanford Lab especially for me.”
Collaborating with old friend and one man publishing powerhouse, Luis Venegas, Ryan has collated many of his iPhone-shot images of Marc for a new edition of Ey! Boy. From the bedroom to the bathroom, the book captures the honest side of a relationship, the moments in-between that Ryan’s lens is so famed for, rather than the typical Insta-ready moments we’re so often subjected to on the infinite scroll. “Although I have many images like these, Marc drew the line, no photos of him smoking weed or full frontal nudity were allowed in this book. The age old advice I can give to anyone trying to be in a long term relationship… compromise. I just say ‘Ok baby, whatever you want.’ I’m just lucky I get to photograph him as much as I do.”
Though much of Luis’s work captures modern sexuality and masculinity, Ryan’s phone-shot, unedited images also offer a refreshingly different portrait of a young gay couple than those typically found in print. “Ryan proposed doing the entire book only with his iPhone photos of his boyfriend, taken since they met — I immediately said yes”, says Luis. “A very important aspect is that this book shows the story of love between two homosexual men and that’s still something relevant to show these days.” Does Luis see this as a departure from the more ‘perfect’ male forms that appeared in previous editions? “I wouldn’t say the previous editions have emphasized perfection, but a certain idealisation,” he explains. “I guess this edition probably feels more ‘real’ as you say because nowadays everybody has a smart phone and everybody takes photos, so it’s easier to relate our own experience with many of the images featured inside this book.”
If there’s one conclusion to be drawn from this book, it’s that it doesn’t matter whether you’re a photographer who shows in world-famous galleries, or even a well-hung Baroque musician who plays the Viola da Gamba: phone photography and the moments it captures should be celebrated. “Camera phones and Instagram are changing the art of photography at such a rapid pace, I’m glad I’m alive to witness it”, finishes Ryan. “Nearly everyone is a photographer. I’m happy to be part of the conversation by putting out a book of only iPhone photos.”
