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APERTURE
Kathy Ryan: Office Romance
Photographs from Inside The New York Times Building
Introduction by Renzo Piano. Text by Kathy Ryan.
Office Romance is Kathy Ryan’s love song, in photographs, to her office life. Shot on the sixth floor of the landmark, Renzo Piano–designed New York Times building where she acts as Director of Photography for The New York Times Magazine, Ryan captures moments of luminous beauty in her daily routine. First published on Instagram, it offers her account of the minute details of her working environment; her colleagues, who pose for her photographs; the glorious building she works in; and the light of New York City. As well as the joy and pleasure in each moment captured, Ryan’s introduction refers to contrasts and ironies that characterize the photo world today; as old media meets new, an editor who commissions swashbuckling photographers all over the world finds moments of transcendent beauty within her office, that in turn become a hugely popular Instagram feed. Kathy Ryan, the long-term Director of Photography at The New York Times Magazine, has been a pioneer at combining fine-art photography and photojournalism in the pages of the Magazine. During this time, the Magazine has been recognized with numerous photography awards, including National Magazine Awards in both 2011 and 2012. In 2012, Ryan received the Royal Photographic Society’s annual award for Outstanding Service to Photography. Under Ryan’s leadership, the Magazine commissions the world’s best photographers, a selection of which was published in The New York Times Magazine Photographs (Aperture, 2011), edited by Ryan. Ryan also lectures on photography (she gave the 2012 Karsh Lecture in Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) and serves as a mentor at the School of Visual Arts.
Featured image is reproduced from Kathy Ryan: Office Romance.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
American Photo
Meg Ryan
This collection of iPhone photos-which Ryan snapped in and around her workplace at The New York Times and then posted on Instagram-examine the play of light and shadow inside and outside the office building. Other images arfully home in the accoutrements of work: sticky notes, computer monitors, X-acto knives and of course, people. Ryan writes that she's not a photographer; we're not buying it.
In his Introduction to Office Romance: Photographs from Inside The New York Times Building by NY Times Magazine director of photography Kathy Ryan, architect Renzo Piano writes, "For an architect, light is essential. The first thing I do when I visit a site for the first time is to understand where north lies, and where the sun comes up and goes down. I start to calculate, mentally, how the light falls; what the sun's angle is at winter solstice and summer solstice, and at equinox, midway between. Light is to an architect what sound is to a composer. It is probably the most immaterial material involved in construction, but it's the most important. From the beginning, The New York Times Building was all about the light, and the vibration of light and shadow. In Kathy Ryan's pictures, I'm happy to find somebody who has captured it!" Featured image is "2:32 pm, November 14, 2012." continue to blog
Describing the genesis of the work collected in Office Romance: Photographs from Inside The New York Times Building, Kathy Ryan's new monograph from Aperture, Ryan writes, "This began when I saw a bolt of light zigzag across the stairs one afternoon at The New York Times Magazine. I pulled out my iPhone and took a picture of it. Then I started seeing pictures all the time—incredible beauty and poetry in my office. It got my heart racing. When I see a certain kind of light out of the corner of my eye during the workday, or somebody is illuminated in an unusual way, I take a few pictures. It's a compulsion. Making pictures has become a call-and-response to the light and the day." Featured image is "2:40 pm, January 26, 2013." continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 5.5 x 8 in. / 160 pgs / 132 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $29.95 LIST PRICE: CANADA $35 ISBN: 9781597113045 PUBLISHER: Aperture AVAILABLE: 11/30/2014 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: No longer our product AVAILABILITY: Not Available
Kathy Ryan: Office Romance Photographs from Inside The New York Times Building
Published by Aperture. Introduction by Renzo Piano. Text by Kathy Ryan.
Office Romance is Kathy Ryan’s love song, in photographs, to her office life. Shot on the sixth floor of the landmark, Renzo Piano–designed New York Times building where she acts as Director of Photography for The New York Times Magazine, Ryan captures moments of luminous beauty in her daily routine. First published on Instagram, it offers her account of the minute details of her working environment; her colleagues, who pose for her photographs; the glorious building she works in; and the light of New York City. As well as the joy and pleasure in each moment captured, Ryan’s introduction refers to contrasts and ironies that characterize the photo world today; as old media meets new, an editor who commissions swashbuckling photographers all over the world finds moments of transcendent beauty within her office, that in turn become a hugely popular Instagram feed.
Kathy Ryan, the long-term Director of Photography at The New York Times Magazine, has been a pioneer at combining fine-art photography and photojournalism in the pages of the Magazine. During this time, the Magazine has been recognized with numerous photography awards, including National Magazine Awards in both 2011 and 2012. In 2012, Ryan received the Royal Photographic Society’s annual award for Outstanding Service to Photography. Under Ryan’s leadership, the Magazine commissions the world’s best photographers, a selection of which was published in The New York Times Magazine Photographs (Aperture, 2011), edited by Ryan. Ryan also lectures on photography (she gave the 2012 Karsh Lecture in Photography at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) and serves as a mentor at the School of Visual Arts.
