This is your invitation...
Sharing some portraits my friend Kathleen made of me plus an exciting life and newsletter update.
I wanted to share a few of the beautiful photographs that my good friend Kathleen made of me a few weeks ago. This might be the first time I've ever gone out of my way to schedule another photographer to make my picture. I've always just opted to do it myself. However, I needed an updated headshot because I had to send one in for my first group show at Public Works.
I've been intentionally making work on the streets of Charleston now for around five years, and I finally get to show off 3 of my favorite photographs. It’s something I've been wanting for such a long time, but I have never tried to force it. I wanted to work with people who believed in my vision and understood the work I was making. I didn't want to make any compromises along the way. Timing is so crazy, and seeing things I've wanted for so long happen organically and precisely when they're supposed to has been so cool to watch.
So, if you're reading this and in Charleston, come see my photographs at Public Works from September 15 - November 11. The prints that Imaging Arts Printing made are stunning, and then they were framed by the amazing people at Frametastic.
Also, the first photograph was made on a roll of very expired Portra 160 VC. Shoutout to the amazing folks at State Film Lab for developing and scanning this film. The scans are so perfect.
Below are a few of my other favorites from that day. We shot a fresh roll of Portra 160 as well as some digital stuff where we adapted a very old Leica 50mm Summarit to my Leica M11. We played around a lot, and I'm so happy with all of these portraits. Loved getting weird with it. It reminded me of the good old days, creating a bunch of weird stuff with all your art school friends.
I am very thankful for a friend as amazing and talented as Kathleen.
A quick newsletter update as well.
If you are subscribed to this, I want to say thank you and how much I appreciate you being here. I want to really start publishing some other stuff throughout the month in addition to my weekly street updates. I'm working on a few drafts at the moment that I’m really excited about.
I wanted to take a moment and explain a new perk when you upgrade to a paid subscription. I wanted to provide some value outside of just supporting me through reading and paying for this newsletter. I know a million other things in this world are asking for your support and hard-earned dollars. But if you do choose to support me and my work financially, I want to give back something cool in return. So, after thinking about what I could provide outside of this newsletter, I landed on offering an 8x10 inch open edition print for every paying subscriber. Each year, I’ll choose a new photograph I’m stoked about and either mail it to you or deliver it if you’re local. These prints will still be the same high-quality prints that I’ve been offering in my limited edition cowboy collection, but these will be open edition. It is still going to be printed by Imaging Arts on the amazing Canson Platine Fibre Rag paper and still signed by me. In addition to the print, you’ll also get access to the full post archive.
No pressure whatsoever. If that does sound like something you’d be into, feel free to upgrade to a paid subscription before the end of September, and you’ll get this very first photograph I’ve selected. I’m excited about the photo I selected and can’t wait to get it into everyone’s hands.
If you want to support me without upgrading, you can just share this newsletter with someone. :) That would mean the world and be so helpful as I grow this little community on Substack.
Much love,
Ryan