MAE RYAN

Surf's Up Santa

2011-12-24T12:02:00.001-08:00

Surfing Santa and his entourage bring the Christmas spirit to Seal Beach.

MorrisseyOKE

2011-12-24T12:00:00.001-08:00

Fans in east LA sing their hearts out to classic Morrissey hits.

Aardvark Letterpress

2011-12-24T11:55:00.001-08:00

Located in the heart of downtown LA, Aardvark Letterpress uses turn of the century machines to print modern day business cards, invitations and whatever else their high end clients desire.

Founded by Luis Ocon, a Mexican immigrant, the business is now in the hands of his two sons Cary and Brooks. Artists and celebrities throughout LA frequent the shop and past customers include Ed Ruscha, Gillian Welch, Valentino and Bill Clinton.

Modesty Modern

2011-12-24T11:52:00.001-08:00

Fashion designer Jamesa Nikiema bridges the gap between haute couture and hijab.

Occupy The Night

2011-12-24T11:49:00.001-08:00

As a California winter sets in, the denizens of OccupyLA are hunkering down for the periodic rain and winds. The logistics of maintaing a camp in the center of downtown vie with aspirations to disrupt the one percent with demonstrations and marches.

The Fighting Blind

2011-12-24T11:43:00.001-08:00

Blind students practice their high kicks and punches at a Tae Kwon Do class offered at Anaheim's Braille Institute.

Primed to Serve

2011-12-24T11:40:00.001-08:00

Adrenaline junkie Davit Melkayin is gearing up to join the US Army in February 2012. Born in Armenia and raised in America, Melkayin is ready to fight for his country, no matter what the consequence.

Child of the Killing Fields

2011-12-24T11:34:00.000-08:00

Born into the Killing Fields under the Khmer Rouge, Prach Ly escaped to Long Beach, California. Growing up on the dividing line between Long Beach and Compton, he responded to the music of the era and became one of the first Cambodian hip hop artists.

Living Lebowski, Dude

2011-12-24T11:17:00.001-08:00

Way out west there was this fella I wanna tell ya about. Fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski. At least that was the handle his loving parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself. Mr. Lebowski, he called himself "The Dude."

Founded in 2002 by two dudes in Kentucky, Lebowski Fest welcomes all Walters, Maudes, Dudes and a bounty of other characters to bowl, drink white russians and relax, man.

Tongan Paradise

2011-12-24T11:14:00.000-08:00

Since mid-August I've been out producing pieces for KPCC - Southern California Public Radio. This piece is my first in a series about immigrant communities in LA. While they no longer reside in their South Pacific oasis, Tongan immigrants are importing their island culture of pig roasts, rugby and all out dance parties to Hawthorne, CA.

Occupy LA

2011-11-28T09:54:00.001-08:00

The countdown is on. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa asked protestors to leave camp at LA's City Hall at 12:01 this morning. The police arrested 4 protestors, but the showdown remained peaceful.

Kiev, Ukraine

2011-08-05T10:35:00.000-07:00

Two days of exploring in Kiev this past June

Avenida Rivadavia

2011-07-27T09:40:00.000-07:00

I recently had the good fortune of getting a scholarship to attend the Foundry Workshop down in Buenos Aires. I took a week long class with the fabulous Maggie Steber and met some other amazing photographers. With only 3 days to shoot I decided to photograph Avenida Rivadavia, a 22 mile street that divides north and south Buenos Aires and extends from the city center out to the suburbs.

Kutaisi's Former Soviet Headquarters

2011-07-12T15:03:00.000-07:00

After leaving Svaneti I caught a free ride to Kutaisi, which was one of Georgia's largest industrial cities during the Soviet era. Upon arriving at my hotel I befriended a professional juggler from New Mexico and we decided to scope out some of the ruined industrial complexes. We stumbled upon Kutaisi's former Soviet headquarters and as we walked through the abandoned hallways a man walked out of the shadows. In broken Russian and Georgian we figured out that he was once one of the leaders of the Soviet party in Georgia and he and two other leaders still come into the building everyday. After they showed us the intact classrooms and courtyards where they used to have soviet balls, they locked up for the night and we walked around the former industrial factories nearby.

Svaneti

2011-07-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

After a 15 hour Marshrutka ride over boulder filled roads, I arrived in Svaneti, Georgia, the highest inhabited region in the Causasus. For four days I hiked between villages, stayed with families, ate a lot of Khachapur'y (Georgian cheesy bread) and took a few photos along the way.

Krokodil

2011-07-01T01:28:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I had the chance to photograph the Chichevo Rehab center, a facility run by Russian Pentecostals for recovering drug addicts. Set two hours outside of Moscow, the center is surrounded by forest, dachas, babushkas and chickens. Every day the residents cook, clean, chop wood, take water from the well, construct new buildings and pray. While most of the residents are former heroin addicts and alcoholics, Irina Pavlova (the platinum blonde) is recovering from Krokodile, a new designer drug that is a combination of codeine, gasoline, paint thinner, hydrochloric acid, iodine and red phosphorous. Cheaper than heroin and with similar effects, Krokodile is quickly becoming the drug of choice in the more remote regions of Russia. Check out Simon Shuster's article on TIME for more about the drug and Irina.

Moscow

2011-06-30T08:16:00.000-07:00

Ladies of the Polytechnical Museum

2011-06-07T14:24:00.000-07:00

Victor

2011-05-31T14:39:00.000-07:00

Last week my friend Eric and I ventured to Crimea, a beach town on the Black Sea in the Ukraine. Although the summer throngs of tourists hadn't descended quite yet, we happened upon a restaurant with a live singer belting 80s Ukrainian jams and a business group on an alcohol fueled vacation. Victor, pictured below, was one of the top bosses of the group and tended to stay at the table swigging vodka while the rest of the group got down. When he finally made his way to the dance floor, the rest of the business group cleared out, his pants came off and the strip tease began.

Oxana

2011-05-24T07:56:00.000-07:00

On May 15th I arrived in Russia to photograph for Happy Families, an NGO that helps orphans with disabilities throughout Russia. The NGO sent ten photographers--five Americans and five Russians--to document orphanages near Moscow for an exhibition that will appear in Russia and New York. After driving past roadside taxidermists, countless Soviet era war monuments and a lot of taiga (Russian forest) I made it to a town about 500km outside Moscow. The moment I walked in I noticed Oxana, a 9 year old girl who was full of giggles and energy despite her physical disabilities. Even though the language barrier was in full force, over the course of two and half days there was a fair amount of dancing, laughing and trying to figure each each other out.

Parkway Hospital

2011-04-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

In November 2008, New York State Commission mandated that Parkway Hospital in Queens shut its doors to the public. Once the only privately owned for-profit hospital in the New York area, Parkway hit insurmountable financial troubles in the economic crisis and has been in limbo ever since. In 2009, the state closed two other Queens hospitals--St. John's in Elmhurst and Mary Immaculate in Jamaica--leaving the borough short 650 hospital beds. The state is in talks of reopening Parkway if they can secure $8 million in the upcoming months, but, even if they reopen their doors, Queens will continue to lack adequate emergency care in the years to come. I recently had the chance to explore Parkway while shooting stills for a film that was using the defunct hospital as a set.

Multimedia Piece on Time.com

2011-04-04T22:06:00.000-07:00

I recently finished up my internship at Magnum In Motion and had the opportunity to produce a multimedia piece about the Egyptian Revolution for Dominic Nahr. I got to work with the audio that he captured in Tahrir Square combined with many of his unpublished photographs. Check it out here

Photo by Dominic Nahr for Time

David Carson for HUCK Magazine

2011-03-06T16:06:00.000-08:00

Back in the fall I got the opportunity to photograph David Carson, a professional surfer turned graphic designer who popularized experimental typography in the 90s. As the art director for Ray Gun, his layouts often featured splintered photographs with a splattering of vernacular typologies. To find out more about Carson check out the article in HUCK Magazine or watch his TED talk on design.

Naples, FL

2011-02-23T15:12:00.000-08:00

For the past few winters, my Grandmother and her partner Larry have left their house in Connecticut behind to head south to Naples, FL. Over the three days that I spent with them, we didn't stray too far from my Grandmother's perch in the high rise condos that face out to the Gulf of Mexico.

St. Cecilia's Convent

2011-02-10T20:33:00.000-08:00

A derelict convent turned into a Brooklyn arty funhouse by Rabid Hands collective

Getty Reportage: Emerging Talent

2011-01-17T14:48:00.000-08:00

My work just recently got featured in Getty Reportage's Emerging Talent section. Check it out here!

Retreat at Karme Choling

2010-12-28T08:26:00.000-08:00

For two weeks in November I went up to Vermont to sit a Dathun, a Shambhala Buddhist silent meditation retreat. Each day myself and about 50 other participants sat for 8 hours with breaks for walking meditation and meals. During the afternoons I set out with my camera to document the landscape and people whose names I barely knew.

Afternoon with Ivan

2010-12-26T16:07:00.000-08:00

As I was wandering through the snow this afternoon I met Ivan, a Russian immigrant who lives and works at a demolition site in Greenpoint. He offered to show me around the site, introduced me to his cats and said to come back when he goes swimming in the East River in a few weeks.

Northeast Kingdom

2010-12-15T09:48:00.000-08:00

About a month ago I spent time in Vermont attending a two week silent Buddhist retreat. On my day off I went for a drive through St. Johnsbury, the largest town in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont. More images to come soon from the retreat, but for now here's a sample from my day off.

Brooklyn Navy Yard

2010-12-09T18:17:00.000-08:00

A few shots from my night wanderings through the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Another Visit with Lou

2010-12-08T12:03:00.000-08:00

I recently went up to visit Lou in The Jeffersonville Adult Home. I spent most of my time there talking with him and recording audio, but I also got a few new photos. The home recently found a hunting knife and a handle of vodka in his room so he will soon be placed in another adult home in upstate New York. I plan on following him to his new residence so look out for new photos in the upcoming months.

Fashion Shoot for The FADER

2010-12-05T19:06:00.000-08:00

Images from a recent shoot for the style section of The FADER

Nuns Approaching Death on Time.com

2010-11-30T06:55:00.000-08:00

A really big thanks to Mark Rykoff at Time.com for showing my work on the nuns of Mary the Queen.
Click here to see the images

Dad in Connecticut

2010-11-28T21:44:00.000-08:00

Permanente Plant

2010-11-26T14:21:00.000-08:00

While studying architecture in college I had the chance to tour the Permanente Plant in Cupertino, CA. In 1941 the Permanente Plant was the largest cement plant in the world and it currently supplies more than half of the bay area's cement needs.

The plant mines limestone from a nearby 750 ft quarry that has been cut into the Santa Cruz Mountains over the past 70 years. Over the course of the process the limestone is turned into lime by heating the material to 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit, which uses massive amounts of fuel. For every ton of cement produced, another ton of carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere making it the second largest CO2 emitting industry behind power generation.

750 ft quarry

Dome that keeps the materials dry

The dry kiln, preheater tower and dust collector bag house

Recent Work From Mary the Queen

2010-11-21T16:43:00.000-08:00

I went back to visit the Sisters of Mary the Queen convent this fall. While I primarily focused on filming for my ongoing multimedia project, I also happened a few new images.

JIAZAZHI

2010-11-14T09:37:00.000-08:00

I recently got interviewed as part of JIAZAZHI, an online magazine that primarily focuses on Chinese photographers and artists. Check it out here: http://blog.jiazazhi.com/2010/11/interview-mae-ryan/

Lou

2010-10-19T08:55:00.000-07:00

During my weekend up at Eddie Adams I was assigned to shoot Lou, a Brooklyn born Vietnam vet who had somehow landed in the Jeffersonville Adult Home. Over the two days that I spent with Lou he told me of his Bensonhurst exploits, seven years in Vietnam, 25 years in jail and the love of his life.

Eddie Adams

2010-10-14T16:24:00.000-07:00

Just got back from Eddie Adams, a photojournalism workshop founded 23 years ago with 100 young photographers in attendance. I'm still processing the whole experience and trying to catch up on some serious sleep debt, but had an amazing time with old and new friends.

Marwencol

2010-09-21T13:53:00.000-07:00

In 2000, Mark Hogancamp was brutally beaten outside a bar in upstate New York. He lost his entire memory and had to relearn how to walk, talk, read and write. After engaging in more traditional therapy he decided to build a 1/6 scale World War II era town outside of his trailer. Many of the nazi-fighting characters in the town are based on people in his life and over the years he took thousands of photos of various scenes. I got the chance to spend an afternoon with him a few weekends ago on assignment for The Wall Street Journal. Over the course of the shoot I was struck that this town wasn't just some project; it had morphed into his entire life.

You can see the article here: http://tinyurl.com/35rb8bt

Burning Man

2010-09-19T16:18:00.000-07:00

I recently got back from Burning Man and it's hard to describe exactly what just happened in words. I hope the photos do it some justice, but I feel like I only started to scratch the surface photographically. On a few occasions I decided to put the camera down and fully participate instead. I hope I'll get a chance to go back and dig in a bit deeper.

Chicago

2010-08-23T16:38:00.000-07:00

My Dad's side of the family is from Chicago so every year I've had the chance to visit and take in the Mies van der Rohe architecture, summer crowds of lake Michigan and a healthy dose of mid-western friendliness.

Fort Tilden

2010-08-22T17:06:00.000-07:00

Summer exploration of Fort Tilden, a former army base in the Rockaways, with Marcelo.

Nantucket, MA

2010-08-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

Rohoboth, Delaware

2010-08-08T13:19:00.000-07:00

Weekend in Baltimore

2010-08-06T11:53:00.000-07:00

Late Night Lincoln Center

2010-07-29T15:50:00.000-07:00

On my first assignment for The Wall Street Journal I shot an outdoor performance at Lincoln Center. While the performance was amazing, I must say I had a better time shooting the characters in the crowd.

Brighton Beach

2010-07-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

Drove in sheets of rain

Discovered sunset leap frog

Enjoyed the view

Vera's House

2010-07-21T15:24:00.000-07:00

Off Track Betting

2010-07-12T14:29:00.000-07:00

Mary the Queen

2010-06-29T09:28:00.000-07:00

For the past several months I've been documenting eighty Sisters of Charity who live in Mary the Queen Convent in Yonkers, NY. When I first started working I took a more literal approach to the everyday lives of the women who live in the convent (see earlier post). I found that this straight documentary approach did not fully communicate the emotional level of their lives as they transition to death. Some of the women view their death as a beautiful beginning, others are apprehensive about what lies ahead and a few told me that they just live day to day without thinking too much about the unknown. As I got more involved with the project I continued to get more attached to the women I've been working with. While we would talk so freely about death, it's hard for me to imagine that in a few years many of the women pictured here will no longer live within the walls of Mary the Queen.

Yonkers, NY

2010-05-13T08:59:00.000-07:00

As I was leaving the Convent of Mary the Queen (more photos to come soon from that project) I happened upon this scene. I'm thinking Yonkers could make an interesting photo project too...

Dominatrix II

2010-05-10T20:43:00.000-07:00

Another foray into the world of dominatrices.

Lost in New York

2010-04-17T21:51:00.000-07:00

Chinatown

New Haven Lawn Club

2010-04-13T14:49:00.000-07:00

An evening at the New Haven Lawn Club in Connecticut

The Nuns at the Convent of Mary the Queen

2010-04-07T14:24:00.000-07:00

For the past month I've been going up to Yonkers, NY to spend time with the nuns of Mary the Queen Convent. There are 80 nuns who live together in this assisted care facility. I'm in the midst of long term project documenting their lives and their relationship with God and the end of life. Here's just a sample of what I've been up to...

Emergency Performance Art Party

2010-03-23T06:59:00.001-07:00

Last week I shot an event for The Ugly Duckling Presse, an independent book publisher based in Brooklyn, at the Invisible Dog Art Space. A few of my favorites from the night below:

video assignment

2010-03-15T15:42:00.000-07:00

assignment: shoot anything, make a narrative

a special thanks to mom and dad for helping with this...

Newton, MA

2010-03-03T20:10:00.000-08:00

Went back to my home in Newton for the weekend and had the chance to photograph my mom with a 4 x 5 camera from school.

Naples, FL

2010-03-02T17:38:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago I went down to Naples, FL to visit my grandmother and her partner Larry. They've been together for the past 13 years during which they traveled and biked over much of the world. In recent years Larry's health has declined and my grandmother and Affa, a caretaker from Ghana, have dedicated themselves to him. I decided to focus on Larry for the short time I was there.

Michelle in Greenpoint

2010-02-22T19:58:00.000-08:00

Blizzard

2010-02-10T21:46:00.001-08:00

ICP canceled classes. Walked through New York with frozen hands instead.

Michelle and Tess

2010-02-10T21:39:00.000-08:00

Portraits from my large format 4 x 5 class. Working in film feels so very good.

India

2010-01-25T18:35:00.000-08:00

I recently got back from India where I visited my uncle Shyamdas who has lived there for the past 35 years. At 19 he landed in Delhi not knowing any Hindi and ending up moving to Vrindavan, a holy area about 3 hours outside of Delhi, to study Hinduism. Now he spends much of his time studying and translating Sanskrit texts into English. I lived with him for two weeks and it was incredible to see how truly immersed he is in the culture; everyone in the small village shouted Shyamdas as we walked through the cobblestoned streets, which border a hill where Krishna supposedly appeared 500 years ago. The images below are all taken in Vrindavan.

closed

2010-01-24T20:31:00.001-08:00

one night walking around greenpoint.

dominatrix

2010-01-22T12:50:00.000-08:00

I got the chance to shoot Miss Veronica, a freelance dominatrix, in her studio while she was with a female subordinate. I ended up having an interesting discussion about the psychology of kink culture. Veronica says that people within the community feel as though they have a genetic disposition to unusual sexual acts and said that many of her clients leave after a session and look as though they have this huge weight lifted off their shoulder. She thinks it's only a matter of time (albeit maybe a long time) until bdsm is seen as a different type of sexuality instead of a social disorder. The subordinate female told me that before discovered her sexual tendencies she thought she was completely asexual and never had a substantial relationship before she explored bdsm. The whole experience reminded me just how nuanced sexuality can be...

Rev. Jacqui

2009-12-13T12:19:00.000-08:00

Jacqui Lewis is the senior minister at Middle Collegiate Church, the oldest continuous Protestant church in North America. I shot this series over the course of one Sunday worship session.

The Jhas

2009-12-06T16:16:00.000-08:00

Assignment: Take photos of a family that immigrated to the US.

In 2000 Ajay Jha immigrated from Delhi to New York to teach classical indian music and found the Indian Cultural Society, which he runs out of his house in Queens. His wife and three children came to the US in 2005 and help him run music classes.

view out my window

2009-11-21T15:34:00.000-08:00

Stuffed Animals

2009-11-19T09:45:00.000-08:00

Assignment: Shoot a small business

Rich runs Fins to Feather Taxidermy out of his house in Farmingdale, NY. Raised in a family that enjoyed hunting, Rich became interested in taxidermy at age 14, started apprenticing and has been practicing ever since.

teenagers

2009-11-13T16:51:00.001-08:00

assignment: teenagers

photos from st. ann's, a private school in brooklyn, and a special thanks to annette and julia

Thompkins Square Park

2009-10-22T20:14:00.000-07:00

My first assignment for seminar was to go to Thompkins Square park and take photos for a week. Here's what ensued...

2009-10-18T16:00:00.000-07:00

Assignment: Photograph what you see on your way home (all shot on the same day)

Water Assignment

2009-10-15T06:12:00.001-07:00

2009-10-13T21:15:00.000-07:00

Assignment: Make a white wall black using the magic of flash

2009-10-11T12:42:00.000-07:00

Assignment: Photograph a trace of something
Location: Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Assignment: Shoot an open space
Location: Dumbo, Brooklyn

Assignment: The complement of cyan
Location: South Street Seaport, Manhattan

Assignment: Light a part of the body with light
Location: Natural History Museum, Manhattan

Assignment: Something invisible
Location: Brighton Beach, Brooklyn

Assignment: Make a Martin Parr photo
Location: Coney Island

Assignment: Create a photograph about touch
Location: B Train to Harlem

Assignment: Photograph a classmate
Location: Central Park

California Photos

2009-06-30T20:12:00.000-07:00

The Academy of Sciences

A fire in a Stanford student's dorm
Cement Processing Plant

The Academy of Sciences in SF

2009-06-30T19:29:00.000-07:00