Today we’d like to introduce you to Audrey Ryland
Hi Audrey, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hi. My name is Audrey Ryland, I’m 19 years old, from Richmond, Virginia, and I’m addicted to telling stories.
I can hear it now; the room is filled with my extended family on my mom’s side. There isn’t a seat left unoccupied in the entire house. My body is tired and warm from the South Carolina summer sun and my stomach is full, maybe a little too full. As the youngest of nearly twenty relatives and two older siblings, I sit on the ground, breathe deep, and listen amidst the chaos.
In this room exists decades of unbreakable connections, experiences, and stories you could never believe. I quickly learned the value of listening this way.
My family taught me a lot about how to tell a good story. Not necessarily with step-by-step instructions, but by accident. But through repetition.
I feel like I was born to create. Shapes, symmetry, compositions, colors; from day one, I’ve swooned over things others around me didn’t seem to notice, mostly regarding art and the quiet, “insignificant” moments of life around me. Growing up with dyslexia, art felt like it was my only choice. The solidified complexities of subjects like math made me small; the mystery and ambiguity of art made me larger than anything I’d ever known.
My journey with photography began in the 6th grade. I started off shooting with an iPad. Not the most glamorous of cameras, but I owe it my life today. I spent my middle and high school years making short films, creating comercials for my high school morning annoucments, photographing local bands, and walking alone for hours with just my camera, headphones, and a set of batteries. I used that time to develop my love for photography, not so much my skills. So, when I began my college career at the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2023, a whole new world materialized right in front of my face. Studying photography has felt like the oasis in the creative desert I’ve been looking for. Now that I’m beginning to make sense of the craft that continues to allow me to show the world all I am, I’m beginning to make sense of what this all means. What life means. Why we’re here and why we create art.
While photography is the medium I chose to study in school, my heart burns for music. It burns for the feeling of guitar strings cutting my fingertips and a soreness in my throat. It burns for the beauty of something handmade, something intimate and tangible. It burns for fibers, old scraps of nothing, yarn, clippings, and a needle and thread.
Whatever it is I make, I strive to tell a story.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When I was just a young girl in elementary school, I was diagnosed with Dyslexia. While dyslexia makes almost every normal subject in school hard like learning about cell division in science or the Pythagorean theorem in math or remembering obscure dates in history, it has allowed me to tap into parts of my emotional and artistic intelligence I didn’t know could exist. I was extremely lucky enough to have gone to a school in my youth that specialized in helping kids with learning differences. However, I found myself surprisingly alone in my creative endeavors. It was frustratingly hard connecting with my peers in a way that excited me emotionally and creatively. While a big chunk of my peers only cared about typical teenage societal pressures and getting decent grades, I was hungry for stories, creating, and expanding my knowledge in any direction it could fly. As I’ve been going through my life as an artist and as a young woman, I often feel the tiniest bit emotionally alienated. Writing about this feeling feels a bit like a contradiction to my issue in itself, but I feel as if my emotional intelligence has allowed me to almost feel too deeply. It’s been hard finding people who speak my language, but at the end of the day, it’s the differences between me and those sitting next to me that light such a flame inside my heart. There is so much value in the stories and private little rituals of the people around you. I am so thankful to those in my life who have connected with me and have supported me on such a deep level. I’m thankful for the connections, big and small.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I specialize in visual storytelling through the lens of photography. I consider myself a documentary photographer interested in dream-like compositions and unique visual and emotional stories. Or to put it bluntly and way less eloquently, I shoot what I like. I’d say I’m best known for my photography and my music. I’ve been playing guitar since the 6th grade and consider it to be another language, one that connects us all. For me, to sing is to speak. My work, both visual and auditory, specializes in capturing the nuances of everyday life, the fleeting moments that often go unnoticed, and the plain and simple mystery of life. I’m also a huge believer in making art simply to make art. I’ve often found that in my creative process I sometimes attach personal meaning to the work long after the fact. To listen with my heart, to speak only in questions, and to challenge others to see what they’ve been ignoring is where I find my purpose.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
Collaboration is what makes the world go round. I love working with other artists in a variety of ways like shooting BTS for artists and their artistic endeavors, photographing local concerts, or capturing the essence of a person or thing, you name it. To support me is to collaborate with me.
From portraits to obscure shoots to long documentary projects, I want to work together to create something beautiful and unique.
But my ideas and aspirations go beyond simple portraiture. I hope to one day be a photojournalist working for a company like National Geographic, VICE, The New York Times, or in a dream world, living like Anthony Bourdain. Artists like Stacy Kranitz, Chris Verene, Chloe Sherman, Cristóbal Hara, Elliott Erwitt, Alex Webb, Larry Towell, and Martin Parr inspire me so greatly. Getting to collaborate with any of them would just be a dream.
Pricing:
- If you’d like to work with me, please reach out. I’d like to start taking commissions for sock monkeys and children’s toys that I frequently make.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://audreyryland.wixsite.com/audrey-ryland-2
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aud.stuff?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/audrey-ryland
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@audreyryland
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/aauuddiiee?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
