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Arts & Culture

Levi's "Go Forth" Campaign and Photographer Ryan McGinley

Photographer Ryan McGinley has built a career in the art world photographing young people (often his friends) partying, in intimate poses, at rock concerts, and running naked across the American landscape. McGinley's aesthetic is part Larry Clark and part Nan Goldin, minus the grit and realism. Mash these two photographers, add more American Apparel, keep all the nudity, and throw in some dreamy pastoral landscapes and you are closer to McGinley's work. He's interested in capturing that early 20-something period when freedom and youthful rebellion reign.

McGinley shot a series of commercials for Levi's called "Go Forth" and I've seen them the last few times I've gone to the movies. Here's one of them, using the poem "America" by Walt Whitman as well as an 1890 wax cylinder recording of what's thought to be Whitman reciting part of the poem.

Ryan McGinley's Levi's Campaign