"Ryan Russell grew up in the Deep South. We're not talking about the vacation havens of Florida or the Atlanta you saw in a rap video, we're talking about Birmingham, Alabama the gritty south that has long been known for steel mills, attack dogs, fire hoses and little else. Growing up in the infamous Magic City left a lot to the imagination, hanging around downtown soaking up the turn of the century architecture and decades of urban blight developed his talent of bringing energy and color out of ordinary scenes. With his style Russell embraces predecessors of southern culture William Eggleston and Ernest Withers as well as personal influences like Glen Friedman and Charles Peterson to create a new, bold take on classic southern gothic photography. Ryan captures the grit and energy of today's American music scene like Lee Friedlander's Atlantic Records work during the 50s and 60s or Anton Corbijn's work with U2 and Joy Division.

Although you wouldn't guess it from meeting the southern gentleman, Ryan has photographed some of the most critical artists of our time. From shooting the likes of Death Cab for Cutie, Paramore, My Chemical Romance, Josh Homme/Queens of the Stone Age, Underoath, the Melvins, Sonic Youth, Patton Oswalt and David Cross to being printed in magazines like Alternative Press, Rolling Stone, Spin and Playboy or periodicals like New York Post, Chicago Reader and the Chicago Sun Times, Ryan has become a relevant artist. He has toured with the likes of Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie/Postal Service), Taking Back Sunday, Against Me!, and Mastodon." -John Ciba/CHOKE

death cab for cutie, watching the weather/looking at storms on radar, kidrobot, dunnys/munnys, xbox360, chicago, records, ladies, not very good photographs, screenprinting, rotofugi, vitamin water, husker du's, husker dont's, freight trains, polaroids, lomography, dickies pants, bbq, tunnels, lighthouses, bridges, little caesars. im pretty lame.

+44, ac/dc, achilles, against me!, air, akimbo, alexisonfire, alkaline trio, the almost, aloha, american analog set, american football, anberlin, anchor & braille, angels and airwaves, the anniversary, aqueduct, armor for sleep, ash, at the drive in, aveo, a wilhelm scream, bad astronaut, bad brains, bad religion, band marino, bayside, david bazan, beck, beirut, be your own pet, big black, big business, bikini kill, black cross, black lips, blame game, black sabbath, blink182, bloc party, blonde redhead, the blood brothers, blur, boris, botch, david bowie, boys life, braid, breaking pangea, breather resist, british sea power, broadcast, broken social scene, the bronx, cadillac blindside, cale parks, camera obscura, capn jazz, the cardinal sin, cartel, cat power, challenger, circa survive, city & colour, the city on film, clouds, codeseven, coheed and cambria, coldplay, coliseum, the color fred, colossal, comeback kid, converge, the cootees, creedence clearwater revival, cursive, dashboard confessional, daughters, death cab for cutie, death from above 1979, decahedron, deerhoof, descendents, kevin devine, devo, dinosaur jr, the dismemberment plan, doomriders, drive like jehu, drunk horse, earlimart, early man, eisley, elefant, emery, the evens, envy on the coast, every time i die, explosions in the sky, face to face, failure, fairweather, fake problems, the fall of troy, fall out boy, farewell, the farewell bend, feist, field music, fleetwood mac, foo fighters, frodus, frou frou, the futureheads, gainer, gallows, gang of four, marvin gaye, the germs, the get up kids, ghosts and vodka, gnarls barkley, the go! team, gospel, grade, grandmaster flash and the furious five, al green, green day, haram, harkonen, harvey milk, haste, headlights, richard hell, jimi hendrix, hey mercedes, high on fire, the hives, holy roman empire, homesick for space, the hope conspiracy, hot rod circuit, hot snakes, humans, husker du, ikara colt, ima robot, imbroco, interpol, isis, michael jackson, jackson united, jaguar love, the jealous sound, jimmy eat world, joan of arc, jonathan rice, joy division, trever keith, kevin devine, kill creek, killswitch engage, kings of convenience, kiss, knapsack, lagwagon, led zeppelin, sondre lerche, le tigre, the lemonheads, lifetime, the life and times, logh, longwave, look mexico, lords, love is red, love of everything, love of diagrams, low, lugsole, m83, mae, the magnetic fields, make believe, man ...or astroman?, manitoba, marigold, maritime, mare, martin youth auxiliary, mastodon, matchbook romance, mates of state, matt & kim, melvins, midlake, the mighty lemon drops, millencolin, million dead, minor threat, minus the bear, miracle of 86, misfits, mission of burma, mock orange, mogwai, monade, the monorchid, montag, motion city soundtrack, mum, my chemical romance, naked raygun, the narrator, neon blonde, the new amsterdams, a new found glory, new mexican disaster squad, nirvana, norma jean, no use for a name, nofx, nowhere squares, oasis, olympia, owen, owls, the out_circuit, panthers, paramore, pavement, pedro the lion, pelican, pig destroyer, pinback, plate six, playing enemy, pop unknown, portastatic, posion the well, the postal service, pretty girls make graves, prince, the prom, pomegranates, the promise ring, the power and the glory, queen, queens of the stone age, radiohead, rage against the machine, ramones, razor crusade, refused, reggie and the full effect, rem, red house painters, red sparowes, rival schools, the riverdales, rocket from the crypt, rolling stones, roy, safety in numbers, samiam, saosin, saves the day, say anything, servotron, shamelady, sharks keep swimming, shellac, shelter, the shins, shoplifting, the smashing pumpkins, the smiths, smoke or fire, smoking popes, societa anonima, solea, so many dynamos, someone loves you boris yeltsin, sonic youth, sparta, starmarket, statistics, stereolab, rod stewart, strung out, sun kil moon, superchunk, sweet cobra, swervedriver, swirlies, the sword, systems officer, taking back sunday, talking heads, ted leo + the pharmacists, tegan and sara, texas is the reason, these arms are snakes, thin lizzy, thrice, thursday, torche, tokyo police club, trail of dead, transistor transistor, tv on the radio, underoath, unwed sailor, unwound, valient thorr, vampire weekend, van halen, vesper, vitreous humor, wax, the walkmen, jim ward, whippersnapper, the white stripes, the who, xbxrx, yeah yeah yeahs, thom yorke, young widows

all the presidents men, american gangster, anchorman, apollo 13, the battle of algiers, bottle rocket, buffalo '66, coming to america, conspiracy, control, election, forrest gump, the goonies, harry potter i-v, high fidelity, homeland insecurities, in good company, iron eagle, juno, the life aquatic, lost in translation, mr deeds, office space, orange county, pootie tang, prefontaine, pripyat, rocky i-v, rushmore, the royal tenenbaums, saving private ryan, seven, snoopy come home, spiderman i-iii, the squid and the whale, star wars, wayne's world, the weather underground, wedding crashers, wet hot american summer

30 days, arrested development, band of brothers, the bernie mac show, chappelle's show, the cosby show, curb your enthusiasm, the deadliest catch, dog the bounty hunter, freaks and geeks, from the earth to the moon, house, king of the hill, man vs. wild, the office, pete and pete, rob and big, run's house, seinfeld, sifl and olly, the sopranos, sundance/ifc channels, sunny in philadelphia, the west wing, the wire

soledad brother