Ryan Pfluger

Ryan Pfluger has shaped his career as a portrait photographer in part by understanding how personal work can affect a client’s perception. While he often addresses the history of gay artists and gay photographers in his personal projects, he has also tried to avoid being put “into this box of cool, young gay photographer,” he says. Instead he has chosen projects—like his “Portraits in the Park” series, which questions what a photographic portrait can convey—that allow him to show he can work with a range of people and ideas. “Being gay and being a minority has made me very self-aware of who my subjects are and why I’m choosing to photograph them,” Pfluger explains.