Love is in the Air

Ryan McGinley for The New York Times

Ryan McGinley's association with The New York Times Magazine, which dates back to a memorable 2004 cover story of Michael Phelps and the American Olympic swimmers, continues. This past Sunday McGinley photographed the cover for a special issue of The New York Times Magazine dedicated entirely to love in New York City. 

The cover shoots took place over the course of a single day: Saturday, May 19, 2018. All the photography was shot on that date between 12 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. By choosing this theme and so tightly limiting the time frame, Kathy Ryan and the other Times editors hoped to convey the city's "magical density of intimacies," the way it juxtaposes (especially as the weather begins to warm) the private communion of one pair of lovers with the rollicking public energy of the bustling crowd - itself composed of numberless lovers communing privately amid the noise, all the center of their own universe. 

So many of McGinley's Times Magazine shoots have been notable. This latest project yielded an unprecedented 24 different cover images, depicting almost every combination of lovers imaginable. McGinley and Ryan also teamed up to make a video of the shoot - to the tune of "Make out in my car," by Moses Sumney.      

Peter Hay Halpert Fine Art is one of the premier resources for McGinley's early work, dating back to the period when the gallery represented McGinley, and we continue to admire his photography. 

In 2003, we coordinated McGinley's solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, which made him, at 26, the youngest artist to have a one-man exhibition at the museum. Since he first started working, McGinley's work has been figurative, initially focusing on his circle of friends seen in urban settings. By the time of his PS1-MoMA exhibition in 2004, he had begun incorporating active nude figures into the landscape. His photographs now move seamlessly between these urban and environmental scenes. With The New York Times Magazine's "Love City," McGinley returns to his roots in New York. 

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