ABOUT
Ryan Young (he/him, b. 1988, San Francisco, CA) is a commercial and editorial photographer based in Los Angeles, California. His work broadly engages with individual and group identity formation and expression. Grounded in his Chinese-American heritage and informed by his deep roots in the skateboarding community, Ryan has long used photography as a bridge to explore his curiosity about the things—the practices, norms, and knowledge-- that have the power to unite as well as divide.
Ryan has dedicated his career to visually sharing the narratives of people from every corner of society from the rising stars of the NBA to cattle ranchers in North Dakota and homeless youth along California’s coasts to billionaire inventors in Silicon Valley. A through line of these narratives is the expressions of how his subject’s actively produce and shape the culture of the communities they are a part of. Whether that is through the pursuit of a craft or sport or in support of a lifestyle, the subjects in Ryan’s photographs often open up a door into the spaces they may call “home.” Ryan’s photographic process is to capture the moments of reverence to debauchery and introspection to flamboyance that are often overlooked in the rising and falling action of his subject’s stories. Ultimately, Ryan’s goal is to create a frame for authenticity that embodies the complexity, contradictions, and messiness of our lives whether that’s front-and-center or hidden in plain sight.
CLIENTS
Apple
adidas
Airbnb
Bicycling Magazine
Billboard
Commune Design
Coors
Dazed
ESPN
Esquire
Fader
Fast Company
Financial Times
Forbes
Gatorade
Google
Golf Digest
Inc.
Monocle
Modelo
Muscle Milk
Nike
Ogilvy
Popular Mechanics
Popular Science
Rollacoaster
Runner's World
72andSunny
SLAM
Swift
The Hollywood Reporter
The New York Times
Travel+Leisure
Vans
Vogue Japan
Wallstreet Journal Magazine
Washington Post
Wired
Wonderland
We Are Social
Wieden+Kennedy
Wongdoody
