MAN on McGinley
Ryan McGinley's underwater photographs of Olympic swimmers were featured in the Tmes on Sunday. This series of shots is more focused and interesting than the scatter shot of Abercrombie & Fitch-like work the Whitney showed earlier this year. I question the decision to take Amanda Beard out of a competition suit and shoot her in "civvies". It's hard to distinguish this from a mere fashion shot, but then I guess we all gravitate to what we're comfortable with.
Tyler over at MAN has some thoughts on McGinley's itchy trigger finger.
I dunno. I don't think that's a very convincing analysis by old Tyler. I like the NYT Mag photos, and I don't think it's objectively true that they're "the kind of pictures that sports photo journos have been taking for years". If he feels the guy's overexposed, I'd advise him to look at fewer art magazines. I don't think it's McGinley's fault that people like his schtick.
I agree that some of the stuff (especially what was at PS1) has an unsavory A&F catalog vibe, but I think that Tyler is basically hating in that post.
I'm not sure Tyler made a convincing analysis either, in regard to the NY Times work. As I said, I found the swimmer shots to be focused and interesting and a much better personal expression than McGinley's own self-selected projects. I think he really benefited from the constraints imposed by the NY Times. I would definitely agree with you that the pics are not run of the mill SI flavor.
But McGinley's other work, the stuff he'd been getting accolades for, is pretty weak, and Tyler is right about that.
I'm trying to wrap my mind around the idea that overexposure is a function of how many people see something and not how often it is presented to be seen.