Ryan McGinley

Ryan McGinley has to be one of my favourite photographers, famous for his photos of his friends and himself road tripping through america his photos capture people being who everyone wants to be, young reckless, carefree and incredibly happy. Whereas Nan Goldin photographed the difficulties and harrowing parts of being young and careless McGinley celebrates the fast paced, chaotic lifestyle of young people who just want to try and enjoy life. 
As a design student I should be able to recognise more photographers by their style but I find my ability to remember names and be able to associate them to a style etc kind of difficult. It's not that I don't like photography it's just my head is full of other stuff. McGinley is different though, take for example this set of photos of Olympic swimmers. When I think of the Olympics and swimming I don't see the images below, yet McGinley manages to take a well known sport, synonymous with a need to be powerful, strict and disciplined and he makes the athletes look completely relaxed, soft and carefree. How he has managed to get such nice effects with an underwater camera eludes me. Here are some images