SAMUEL RYDE
My process is straightforward. I'm really nosey and I need to know what is around that corner. I like to find things that capture my imagination and there is always something. I want to tell its story and to try and bring that thing to life. Why is it there, who put it there, and why has no one looked after it, what does it say about the people that ignore it every day or about the people that use it every day? I like to explore humanity's ability to ignore the things in front of us, our ability to wantingly ignore what is in front of us.
“I firmly believe the best camera is the one you have with you, but I always try and have at least one camera on me, you never know when you'll see something provoking enough to capture.”
For my 'Hand Dryer' collection it forces me to go anywhere and everywhere. New York dive bars have been very fruitful for me in the past and I have a really long list of bars and cities to go to. It's becoming more and more difficult to find. For my personal work, I love architecture and I like to follow what I find interesting because I know I'll find something else when I get there. Since I was a kid growing up in Cardiff, the buildings in Cardiff Bay were built for an era long gone and a wealth that's disappeared. That feeling of loss has stayed with me since a child and I look for it in everything.
Samuel Ryde is a London-based photographer with a passion for noticing the un-noticed objects and architecture of everyday human life. Through his lens, remarkable characters emerge from unremarkable spaces: Hand dryers in washrooms, telephone boxes on street corners, derelict buildings daubed with old signs and new graffiti - all of them tell accidental stories and remnants of moments shared by other people in another place and time.
Samuel has been featured in The New York Times, The Guardian, The New York Magazine, BBC among others and has shown work at TM Gallery and Alex Eagle.
