Kathy Ryan is the Director of Photography for The New York Times Magazine.[1][2] She has worked at The New York Times Magazine since 1987.[3]

Ryan has published the photography book Office Romance, which began as a personal project where she published photographs of The New York Times Building on Instagram. This work revolves around the environment of The New York Times building and portraits of her colleagues and those close to her.

Under her leadership, the Magazine commissions photographers, a selection of whose work was published in The New York Times Magazine Photographs (Aperture, 2011), edited by Ryan. During her time there, the Magazine has been recognized with numerous photography awards, such as the National Magazine Awards in both 2011 and 2012. Ryan herself has received the Royal Photographic Society's annual award for Outstanding Service to Photography.[4] Ryan also gives lectures on photography and serves as a mentor at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.[4]

Early life and education

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Ryan was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, as the second of six children. She lived in Manville, NJ for the first three years of her life and then moved to Bound Brook, NJ, where she lived until she went to college. She is a graduate of Bound Brook High School. Her life as an artist and lover of art began in third grade, when her teacher Sister Mary William had the class paste reproductions of famous works of art into black and white marbled notebooks.[5]

Ryan studied art and art history at Douglass College, Rutgers University, where she concentrated on drawing and worked as a printmaker in the lithography studio, including printing an edition of photographs for Alice Neel.[3]

Career

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Early years

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In September 1978, Ryan was hired by Eliane Laffont, the director of Sygma Photo Agency, as a photo librarian. She then went on to work as a photo researcher, and eventually became the director of the photo research department.

The New York Times Magazine

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In the spring of 1985, Ryan was hired by Peter Howe, the photo editor of The New York Times Magazine, to be the Deputy Photo Editor. She became the director of photography in 1987. Ryan has worked for over thirty years as the director of photography at The New York Times Magazine. She is known for discovering new talent for large commissions in addition to working with legendary, well-established photographers, as well as for cross-assigning photographers to cover topics outside of their usual subject matter.[6] Ryan created the Great Performers video series which began in 2010 with "14 Actors Acting," directed by Sølve Sundsbø. The videos would go on to win two News and Documentary Emmys for "14 Actors Acting" and "Touch of Evil," directed by Alex Prager, along with several more nominations.

Some of the photo essays that The New York Times Magazine published under Ryan's photo direction include:

Curating

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Ryan has curated photography festivals and museum shows across the world. Some of her shows include "Chisel" at the New York Photo Festival, "Dutch Seen" at the Museum of the City of New York, "Prune: Abstracting Reality" at FOAM Museum in Amsterdam, the 2011 & 2015 LOOK3 photography festivals in Charlottesville, VA (co-curated with Scott Thode), and the 2014 Cortona on the Move festival (co-curated with Thode).

Ryan also co-curated a traveling exhibition of photographs from The New York Times Magazine Photographs that opened at the 2011 Rencontres d'Arles in France, and traveled to Amsterdam, Barcelona, New York, Santiago, Jacksonville, and Chattanooga.[7]

Office Romance

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Office Romance began with a series of photographs Ryan posted on Instagram and has become a photo book, with genres such as still life, portraiture, formal abstraction, and architecture. Ryan focuses on capturing the light in The New York Times building, designed by architect Renzo Piano, and its interactions with the day-to-day life of a weekly magazine. The work has been featured in numerous photo essays in international publications.[8]

Publications

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  • The New York Times Magazine Photographs. Editor. New York: Aperture, 2011. Photographs and text.[9]
  • Office Romance: Photographs from Inside the New York Times Building. New York: Aperture, 2014. ISBN 978-1-59711-304-5. With an introduction by Renzo Piano. Photographs and text.[10]
  • Dressing Up: Fashion Week NYC. In conversation with Lee Friedlander. Yale University Press, 2015.[11]

Awards

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  • 1997 Canon Picture Editor of the Year Award, Visa pour l'Image Photojournalism Festival
  • 2003 Picture Editor of the Year Lucie Award, Lucie Foundation[12]
  • 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award, The Griffin Museum[13]
  • 2010 News and Documentary Emmy Award, The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences[14]
  • 2011 News and Documentary Emmy Award, The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences[15]
  • 2012 Outstanding Service to Photography Award, The Royal Photographic Society[16]
  • 2014 Vision Award, The Center for Photography at Woodstock[17]
  • 2015 Picture Editor of the Year Lucie Award, Lucie Foundation[18]
  • 2016 Outstanding Contribution to Photography, Creative Review[19]
  • 2019 Picture Editing Team of the Year Lucie Award, Lucie Foundation[20]
  • 2019 Photo Annual Publication of the Year Award, Photo District News[21]

References

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  1. ^ "Reputations: Kathy Ryan". Eye. Autumn 2009. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  2. ^ Pollack, Kira (4 October 2011). "Inside the Mind of a Master Photo Editor". Time. Archived from the original on October 5, 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2014.
  3. ^ a b Alexander, Scott (8 July 2014). "Behind the Scenes with New York Times Magazine Photo Editor, Kathy Ryan". American Photo. Retrieved 16 April 2016.
  4. ^ a b "Office Romance". Aperture.org. Retrieved 2018-03-10.
  5. ^ "Emmazed: Kathy Ryan for Viewfinder". Emmazed. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
  6. ^ "THE EYE OF THE TIMES.: Discovery Search for Purchase College Library, SUNY". eds.a.ebscohost.com. Retrieved 2018-03-12.
  7. ^ d'Arles, Les Rencontres. "The New York Times Magazine photographs". www.rencontres-arles.com. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
  8. ^ LensCulture, Kathy Ryan |. "Office Romance: Loving Light at the New York Times Building - Photographs by Kathy Ryan | LensCulture". LensCulture. Retrieved 2018-03-12.
  9. ^ "The New York Times Magazine Photographs". Aperture.org. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
  10. ^ "Office Romance". Aperture.org. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
  11. ^ "Dressing Up | Yale University Press". yalebooks.yale.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
  12. ^ "The Lucie Awards | 2003 Lucie Awards". Retrieved 2019-12-30.
  13. ^ "Focus Awards Archive by Award - Griffin Museum of Photography". Griffin Museum of Photography. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
  14. ^ "32nd Annual News & Documentary Emmy® Awards Winners | The Emmy Awards - The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences". Archived from the original on 2018-11-16. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
  15. ^ Touch of Evil - IMDb, retrieved 2019-12-30
  16. ^ "Kathy Ryan Honored by Royal Photographic Society". article.wn.com. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
  17. ^ "Honorees". www.cpw.org. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
  18. ^ "The Lucie Awards | 2015 Lucie Awards". Retrieved 2019-12-30.
  19. ^ "Kathy Ryan's Outstanding Contribution to Photography". Creative Review. 2016-11-25. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
  20. ^ "The Lucie Awards | 2019 Lucie Awards". Retrieved 2019-12-30.
  21. ^ "2019 PDN Photo Annual". digitalmag.pdnonline.com. Retrieved 2019-12-30.
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