the kids were alright

Ryan McGinley: The Kids Were Alright surveys the photographer's first decade of work. It runs from the snapshot-style pictures of his skateboarding friends in downtown New York to the staged, nomadic group portraits that made his name.

Skira Rizzoli published the book in 2017 to accompany an exhibition organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver. It traces McGinley's shift from the diaristic energy of his earliest 35mm work to the elaborately produced road-trip photographs of nude models in the American landscape that followed, with essays that situate that shift within the history of youth photography and the road trip as an American subject.

McGinley emerged in the early 2000s alongside a wave of photographers documenting downtown youth culture. He has continued to build on the same core cast of friends and models across projects including Moonmilk, Way Far, and this survey of his early career.