Chad Moore – [↑] Emma {pool} from the Bridge of Sighs series (2016); [←] Mollie & Ajax from Love is on the Dance Floor series (201X); [+] Ali {hickey} from Put the Book Back on the Shelf series (201X); [→] Untitled from Julia Montauk Hwy series (2016); [↓] Amy {sex} from I Studied You in History series (2014)

OK, so Chad Moore=my most recent photographer crush.

He cites Richard Avedon, Guy Bourdin and Nan Goldin as influences.

Those are all valid, even precocious influences. But there’s a couple things I’d like to point out: he gets closer to his subjects that Avedon, his palates are more naturalistic than Boudrin (skewing more towards the tonal or atmospheric a la infamous cinematographer Christopher Doyle) and while Goldin was also ostensibly interested in documenting counter culture–her impetus was more journalistic and driven by an existential imperative (seeing as proof of life, a document of that seeing as an ersatz memory established against the sting of time, the encroachment of death, a monument against the erosion of memory by seeking oblivion in any effort to feel a little bit alive again)–while his motivation seems more preciously nostalgic.

He apparently raced BMX bikes competitively as a teenager and between shooting fellow riders and people and places in his travels (with disposable cameras). In that way, he reminds me of Ryan McGinley. (Except his use of color is, unlike McGinley: more holistic; also: as much as Moore likes to refers to his work as that of a fly-on-the-wall perspective, he also dodges much of the criticism leveled–rightly–against McGinley with regard to fetishizing youth and beauty. His images inspire an emotional buy-in on the part of the viewer that can only happen if the photographer has invested in the proceedings with similar stakes.

Lastly, his color profiles are hugely reminiscent of Igor Mukhin’s exploration of transgressive youth culture in Russia.

I’m not accustomed to work this accomplished and nuanced with regards to interpersonal sensitivity from someone so bloody young. It’s damn impressive.