Peeling through his photographs, McGinley tells a story of American youth and liberation. His subjects are painted as voyagers amidst exploration of surrounding and self. Setting his freewheeling outdoor film works apart; Animals and ‘Reach out I’m right here’ consist of McGinley’s color studio portraits of live animals with nude models. There exists both tension and tenderness between the models and wild animals, as they claw, clutch, nibble, and hug one another. Perhaps after this you’d get intimate with your cat too.

All photographs copyright of Ryan McGinley: View more of his work here