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ph. Jack Pierson

People let you take these intimate pictures of all that madness without any worries?

Everyone was actually really into it. I think it’s also because we were so fucked up on drugs every single day that the photographs were like the evidence of what happened. I feel like there was a good three years in my life where I don’t think that I had any touches with reality or anything like that. But the photographs were great because it was this evidence of what happened. So I would develop my rolls and then get them back and be like, “Oh my god!” I was just constantly running around doing illegal activities all day long.

How did you come across the concept of only shooting naked people?

When I first started making photographs I would shoot people nude occasionally and I was always just really into it and super fascinated by it. Just the idea of someone taking off their clothes is really exciting and also just watching the human body and studying it with a camera is just something that makes me smile and I think it’s really beautiful. All I know is that when I am shooting people nude it takes me to this other place. I am just so fascinated by the body.

Read the rest over at The Talks

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Ryan by David Needleman / An untitled work by Ryan McGinley

McGinley moved to New York City to attend art school and soon befriended a gorgeous dominatrix/prostitute who lived upstairs from him. They hooked up a few times, but McGinley was hesitant to have sex with her. “She said, ‘If you don’t want to fuck me, you’re fucking gay,’ ” he remembers. “I was like Maybe. I don’t know.

“That night, we ended up at this after-hours,” he says, “And there was this really cute guy, Harry. She talked to him and we ended up back at hers. She said ‘I’m going to kiss Harry and you’re going to kiss me and then you’re going to kiss Harry.’ I was so nervous my mouth was bone dry and I started making out with him and that was it. This made sense! I never hooked up with a girl again.”

If you want to infuse fashion with theoretical meaning and write lots of big-worded books about it, more power to you. I just appreciate it for its aesthetics and its sexiness. If I can see the outline of a guy’s cock through his pants then I’m happy.

Live music is absolutely a religious experience for the fans. They are so completely awestruck by their idols. And it’s like they’re just enraptured, hypnotized, ecstatic and entranced. The fans are the bands, in a way.

One day, when my parents were out of town, I came home from working at the pool and there was a bottle of red wine spilled all over the carpet and all these empty pill bottles everywhere and my brother was passed out on the floor. I called the ambulance, but to tell you the truth, now I wish I hadn’t because after that he really went downhill. I should have just let him die peacefully then. He got so sick that we couldn’t take care of him anymore and he had to go to the AIDS hospital. I would go visit him there every day after school, and we would just watch The Wizard Of Oz over and over and over again. That was his favourite movie. That was what he was watching when he died.

The title, ‘Life Adjustment Center’, is the name of a rehabilitation center down the street from me. I’ve passed their sign for so many years and I always loved the vagueness of the name. You know, it could mean anything. And I feel like it’s what I do. I take this group of people and we get into a bus and we travel all around the United States and jump out of trees and camp together—It’s a complete removal from real life. You adjust your life for my photos and for the trip we’re on.

I like the age when you’re just getting out of school and you have the feeling that you can do anything. They’re optimistic and excited about everything, and the Man hasn’t brought them down yet. I’m always looking for people I feel an affinity with. I don’t use professional models. I have a girl who does casting for me and I send her around the world to music festivals and art schools, looking for interesting people. They’re usually artists in some way, and rebellious or punk or bohemian. And they usually have homemade tattoos—I’m not looking for that specifically, they just always have them.

Smith Westerns and Girls are two of my favorite bands right now. I first saw Smith Westerns play at this restaurant in a weird little mall in Chinatown, and there were only about five people there. I liked how their hair was always covering their eyes and you could barely see their faces. They were so cute; it was almost like watching a high school band. Smith Westerns went on tour with a band called Girls who I immediately fell in love with, so much so that I sent the singer-songwriter Chris Owens my last photography book along with a fan letter. They covered their entire stage with flowers––I loved that. Their song “Solitude” speaks to me more than any other song I can think of right now. I caught up with both bands at the Pitchfork festival to document their performances and be a fly on the wall the whole weekend. That’s pretty much my idea of a perfect vacation. And it was.

One of the best parts of my job is getting to see people naked. I’m endlessly fascinated by the human body.

When you have people with cameras pointed at a bunch of naked people, that’s pretty much the first thing that people think you’re doing. But then they see that people aren’t fucking. People are, like, flying through the air. So they quickly realize it’s not porn. Or at least not very good porn.

I like big noses and homemade tattoos and stuff that gives people character. I like wholesome Norman Rockwell-looking boys and the-girl-next-door types.