New York is having a special summer. The city’s own Knicks claimed the NBA championship for the first time in over half a century; the World Cup is funnelling in thousands of football fans from all over the world; and the US Open is just around the corner. Even Madonna is back to the dance floor. In the meantime, the city is bubbling with outdoor concerts, massive screens showing fiery matches, lovers kissing on the streets and people chanting, “My bagel is Jewish and my mayor is Muslim.” 

Amid this cultural explosion, Ryan McGinley is back to his transgressive roots. After two decades of what he describes to Dazed as “crisscrossing the entirety of America,” the photographer reclaims his corporeal image repertoire with an exhibition of new work at SoHo’s Jeffrey Deitch gallery. Night Shift features around 40 images of a nocturnal New York City where nude bodies linger like playful ghosts. All five boroughs are veiled with the night’s dark shroud, but McGinley’s long lens and slow shutter let the bodies twinkle in the least expected corners. Empty streets stretch into the dark sky while industrial remnants dwarf subjects as they climb up sanitation trucks and run through hungry tunnels. Dilapidated cars, foggy manholes, and chipped boards convey a city extremely remote from its usual glamour. 

McGinley shot his models between the spring of 2025 and this past winter. They started at 9pm, when most of the city began emptying out, and wrapped at 5am, with early commuters and joggers dotting the otherwise unoccupied streets.  

Below, the artist talks to Dazed about working late at night and his latest ode to New York.

Working at night is always trickier, especially in a city like New York. Do you have a standout memory from the whole shoot?

Ryan McGinley: 9pm to 5am was an amazing window. Nobody was out, so we had the streets to ourselves, which made us feel like anything was possible. We had a very quiet city and nothing actually felt too crazy. New Yorkers are really desensitised to just how crazy our city is, so making this work here felt normal for all my models who are also New Yorkers. This is a spontaneous city where making art on the street is not uncommon. We had people giving us nods and being supportive while we were shooting. New Yorkers really respond to somebody who is creating something outside the norm.

Your subjects are often so far out from your lens. I am curious about your presence as a photographer in this specific experience. How did the distance play out here?  

Ryan McGinley: I tried to create a different aesthetic of photography, including a slow shutter and a radio flash, which meant there was flash hitting onto the subject. Meanwhile, I was on a very long lens, so sometimes I’d be one or two blocks away from the model. I was mostly on a call or a walkie-talkie to give my subjects directions. This was also to help them with the energy and how experimental to get with their poses. I wanted to really ramp it up or, at other times, really slow things down for a moody feeling. All the models in the photographs are artists themselves; they’re my friends from my community. 

I really wanted to feature the architecture of New York City, and show the bridges, the sanitation trucks, the buildings. We have the Freedom Tower and Empire State Building, for example, but they are not the main focus. They are just a small element in the background. It was important to also show one of my favourite graveyards, which is the Calvary Cemetery in Queens, or the Long Island City train yard, which I really love because it feels very post-apocalyptic.

New York is unrecognisable in some of the images. We see a motel or a gas station which feel very Americana. They could be anywhere across the country. Did you want to record the city in ways that are not associated with your previous work or the images of it that we are all used to?

Ryan McGinley: My favourite photographer of the city was Bernice Abbott. She was an amazing photographer who captured New York as it was being built with a lot of industrial architecture. There are also street photographers whose books I have, like Garry Winogrand. Neither of these artists are really my style, but I am truly inspired by them. I just wondered what is important to me right now. What are the elements in New York that I love? Every time I ride my bike around, I love seeing smoking manholes. As a photographer who shoots musicians, smoke and wind machines are really important. But smoke constantly comes from manholes naturally – there is an energy burning off and coming out as this gorgeous smoke. Or think of the classic summertime photos of fire hydrants shooting water across the street. I wanted to create these in my style – to bring an otherworldly feel.

As a kid growing up in New Jersey, did you romanticise the city?

Ryan McGinley: The Hudson River is really important to me. I grew up on the other side of the river, and, especially as a queer person, I always think of the old piers and amazing photographers like Alvin Balthrop or David Wojnarowicz. There are references to their pictures of the queer community around the industrial waste. I have a photograph of a nude queer man waiting by the water on a piece of steel. Cape Bridge, which is one of my favourite bridges, lights up every night, all different colours. I didn’t want to photograph someone on the bridge, but I just wanted to have it as a backdrop. Or I wanted to capture the Bushwick Hotel. A lot of artists, including many of my friends, have stayed there. 

The models’ movements look very organic and effortless. Did you guide them about their poses?

Ryan McGinley: I work with a lot of movement directors on my shoots. Here, I had to bring out my inner choreographer and guide people through what I was thinking. They could be standing on a crashed car or a dumpster. We tried to maintain an experimental nature. A lot of times, we hopped on a bike and just rode through the city. None of these people are professional models – they are painters, writers or photographers, so they brought their own personality into it. I worked with people whom I didn’t really need to tell much, because their own spirit was shining through.

New York is often called the city that never sleeps. This true in some parts and not true in others. How was it to be exclusively nocturnal?

Ryan McGinley: Flipping the nine-to-five was difficult, but it brought me back to my roots of being a young photographer, skateboarding and creating graffiti. I used to do those mostly at night, sometimes on rooftops or in the subway tunnels. I remember going to sleep when the sun was coming up, and the birds were chirping. This was now definitely challenging. We shot three nights a week, on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays, because those were the quietest nights. And then I’d flip the schedule and be location-scouting the rest of the week. I switched my circadian rhythm. But I enjoyed getting out of my comfort zone.

You have photographed some of the most famous people in the world for editorials. What are the most striking differences between large commissioned projects and fine art experiments?

Ryan McGinley: I try to bring the same spirit to everything with the same intentions and an experimental nature. If I’m working with a big actor or musician, I try not to be afraid to ask them to do something that can create an exciting photograph. I don’t avoid asking this just because there’s a team of 20 behind me. If it’s a big production, I try to quiet all the people in my head and just remember that it is just me and the person who I’m photographing.

New York City has become increasingly harder for young artists to move and start a career. How do you think this affects the experimental soul that makes the city what is it? What would your advice be to young artists? 

Ryan McGinley: The reason New York City is cool and beautiful is because of its creative people. The wealth gap is really creating a problem. I think it’s important for older artists to look after somebody who is trying to make it as an artist here. Share information about a cheap apartment, or about how to cut corners. One of my favourite things is being a connector because I meet so many people with my camera. When I was a young artist, seven or eight of us had a three-room apartment in the East Village. It was a way for me as a photographer to be able to exist. We constantly had people coming over, so I had access to photograph all these people. This led to my early work with Polaroids, so there was a silver lining to it.

Night Shift by Ryan McGinley is on show at Jeffrey Deitch in New York until 8 August 2026.