*By Devon Tincknell
If there are two things the Internet likes, it’s naked people and cute animals. Normally, these two items are Googled separately, but in wunderkind photographer Ryan McGinley’s new series Animals, furry beasts and fuzzy crotches alike intersect in a surreal set gleyof animal-on-human portraits. Posed in front of the brilliantly colored backgrounds that comprise half of each image’s title, McGinley’s subjects work with each other well, allowing human nudity to mingle with the wild kingdom without ever suggesting anything overtly nasty.
With such a captivating theme, many photographers would have been content to repeat the same image over and over with different backgrounds, animals, and models inserted into each shot. But McGinley takes a different approach and creates something unique out of each combination, whether it’s a nude woman surrounded by a flock of colorful birds or a small monkey grabbing a man’s penis.
