Advanced Hating 102
Today’s worthy Object of Hatred is New York photographer Ryan McGinley. He is famous for his photos of naked young people, frolicking in the woods or whatever he wants them to do. His subjects are often his group of supercool friends, a la Nan Goldin, but more detached and pointless. He has gone from self-described skater kid to acclaimed bigtime Hipster.
It’s not just that I hate his work or that he’s a friend of Hipster Faux-Artist Dash Snow. It’s his clothes, which he eagerly describes in self-aggrandizing detail in Vice Magazine.
For example, in the photo above, McGinley notes that he’s wearing Robert Mapplethorpe’s leather pants. Oh my, that is cool, right? Or is it sickening? Later, when you learn that they were a “gift” from Jack Walls, an old black guy who was one of Mapplethorpe’s favorite models, one can assume that McGinley is quite the opportunist. And one is not any happier when McGinley says of a t-shirt, “If you’re Japanese, you probably collect this shit.”
After you’ve seen and read about his wardrobe, Ryan McGinley leaves you with the bad taste of rotten Hipster in your mouth. You may even look at your own Converse shoes a little suspiciously.
I hate Ryan McGinley and now you can, too!
Tags: hipsters, Mapplethorpe, photographers
June 21st, 2008 at 6:47 am
never heard of him. wish i never, never looked at his converse :-))
June 21st, 2008 at 7:53 am
The thing that annoyed me most about this shoot/article is that he’s so much nicer/different in person than this. It left a bitter taste in my mouth after reading it. It was just utterly pointless and made him look like a jackass.
June 21st, 2008 at 10:47 am
I wish I were wearing Mapplethorpe’s pants.
June 21st, 2008 at 12:12 pm
WendyB, just go and kiss up to Jack Walls, he must have some other ones.
modelizer, he made his own jackass bed and now he must lay in it. The only thing about him that is tolerable is his obsession with Morrissey.
stella-mayfair, I’m so sorry but it is Sister Wolf’s mandate to teach Advanced Hating!
June 21st, 2008 at 3:23 pm
These modern day indie fags need to be force feed hefty dose of old school campery! I’ve crossed paths with simple types and I just wanna bust out the wire hangers and give ‘em beating they’ll never forget. I’m not saying that ‘gayness’ should define his work but there’s a wit that can’t be replicated unless you’ve cried in your hair brush while listening to Melissa Manchester over-and-over-and-over!
June 21st, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Hahahahahaha! Too right, Imelda Matt!
June 21st, 2008 at 7:45 pm
So far, I’m not impressed with this guy. He’s a name-dropper, at best.
June 26th, 2008 at 5:54 am
What the hell is with Ryan McGinley’s work? Its so boring and pretentious to chuck some naked people in a landscape and presume that it is interesting. May as well be looking at American Apparel ads or some Terry Richardson fodder.
June 29th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Hate worthy, yes.
June 29th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
bridie, EXACTLY.
Mark, good hating.
September 29th, 2008 at 2:42 pm
let’s be more selective people! Calling everything art has given us massive galleries in Chelsea full of CRAP. Mind-numbing crap that my man forces me to visit once a month and which drives me to the halfking and makes me pay too much money to drown in beer and bourbon. please stop the madness.