Ryan Steed

Ryan Steed is a Memphis-based photographer and educator whose emphasis lies in documentary photography. "

"My body of work as a photographer is a result of a fanaticism with the power of the camera and what lies within its enclose. My work encompasses a belief that adheres to a canon of certain photographic heroes. My case in point would be a quote by Edward Steichen from 1972, “When I first became interested in photography . . . my idea was to have it recognized as one of the fine arts. Today I don’t give a hoot in hell about that. The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each man to himself.” For me, that is the point of my work. I care for art, but I care nothing for prescribed labels in the art world. Everyone is an artist or master of a craft in some respect, what I care about is content. And for content to be worth suggestion, it must communicate, or as Steichen might say, “explain” to one another. I am for the explanation of our surroundings with my work, to capture the moment of our time and make use of it by print. This obligation is the process in which it is my expected goal to teach awareness and foster communication by the captured subject matter. "