Poster-Sized Pictures of Ab-tastic Men Promo Mailed
My assistant Dave and I just dropped my latest mailer into the USPS’s hands. The 17 x 22 inch poster, printed on newsprint, features some of the beefcakes that I photographed for Philadelphia Magazine back in 2010. The images ran in the 2011 Best of the Shore issue in a photo essay about New Jersey [...]
Best Philadelphia Neighborhoods for Dining
I hope everyone had a great holiday and New Year. Rest was had around these parts and I’m looking forward to 2012. We ended 2011 with a great project with recently anointed Philadelphia Magazine Design Director Jesse Southerland and company. It’s our first cover together and I couldn’t have been more excited that to be [...]
Happy Holidays…and see ya on the flip side.
Ryan Donnell Photography will be taking a much-needed hiatus to visit family in Madison and recharge batteries starting Wed., Dec 21st to Wed., Dec. 28th. Here’s to hoping everyone has a fantastic holiday season!
Behind the Curtain Nominated for Blurb 2011 People’s Choice Award
My recently self-published book, Behind the Curtain: A Look at Philadelphia’s Unique Polling Places, has been nominated for the 2011 Blurb People’s Choice Awards, which is part of the self-publishing company’s wider Photography Book Now competition. Yes, my friends, that means you have a chance to vote for my book. Of course, you’ll have to [...]
Pizza, Pizza, Philadelphia, Pizza, Pizza
McCormick & Company did it again this month: another great cover (and issue) of Philadelphia Magazine. Creative Director Michael McCormick and I collaborated to create a super simple and elegant cover photo of a slice of pepperoni pizza. It’s from the great Philly pizzeria Rustica in Northern Liberties and is almost actual size! My assistant [...]
New Project in Progress – The Share Project
In the coming weeks I’ll be documenting items from the farm share that my wife and I subscribe to during the spring, summer and fall. I’ll be photographing the raw ingredients and then turning them into a finished dish, hopefully, a simple and quick preparation. This project will be as much a way to stretch [...]
Philly Mag 2011 Shore Issue
It might be considered a rite of passage for Philadelphia photographers, that is to shoot the annual shore issue for Philadelphia Magazine. If nothing else, it’s a kind of honor. I write “kind of” because, while it confers a trust and loyalty from the powers-that-be at the magazine, which any photographer would be honored to [...]
PDN Photo Annual & American Photo Galleries
I got word today that two competitions, the PDN Photo Annual and the American Photo 27, both put up their winners galleries today: http://www.pdngallery.com/contests/photoannual/2011/ http://www.ai-ap.com/slideshow/AP/27/ I placed images in both competitions. If you’d like to see my AP27 images specifically, including the image above, visit this link: http://www.ai-ap.com/slideshow/AP/27/?status=chosen#23 My PDN images were finalists in the [...]
Happy Election Day, Philly. Buy my book.
Behind the Curtain by Ryan Donnell Hey everyone, don’t forget it’s election day today in Philadelphia. Get out and vote…and maybe think about buying one of my great new books!
PDN Photo Annual Finalist
I had a great time at the 2011 PDN Photo Annual party in Tribeca on Wednesday night. Friend and fellow Philly photographer Ryan Collerd and I made the trek up to Manhattan for a whirlwind, whiskey-fueled evening. We rode in the elevator and searched for free drinks with one of my photo-crushes, portrait photographer Chris [...]
Top Docs Cover Feature for Philadelphia Magazine
Got my copy of the May issue of Philadelphia magazine a few days ago. I completed a feature for the annual Top Docs story last month, in which we profiled six great nurses in the Philadelphia area. It was a departure from the normal Top Docs issue in a couple ways. One, they featured nurses [...]
Travel to Ireland
Jameson Distillery. Dublin. Just a reminder that I’ll be off to Dublin starting tomorrow (Thursday, May 5) and returning to the office on Tuesday, May 10. Please email with any needs during that time period and excuse any slow response. I’ll be adding images to this gallery.
The Lost Ad Campaign
Three years ago, I was hired by an agency to create a series of ads for The Philadelphia Foundation, which, if you don’t know, is a huge philanthropic group that supports all kinds of great non-profits and community groups. The TPF might be described as the non-profit’s non-profit. The campaign was going to be huge: [...]
Los Angeles this week…
Just an FYI to all those lovely people who commission or buy photography, I’ll be traveling to Los Angeles this week on Wednesday, March 9th. I’ll be there through the weekend, but as always, I’m happy to extend a stay. Feel free to touch base if you have any needs from that part of the [...]
“Generations” Feature in Philadelphia Magazine
I was tapped by the good people at Philly Mag to produce a set of portraits of people who will help shape various facets of Philadelphia life in the near future. As always, I want to thank every one of the subjects for their patience and help in making these images that I am proud [...]
Happy Holidays + New Year
Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Holiday + New Year from me and my CCO (Chief Canine Officer), Hank. (Pssst, you can click on the picture above to make it easier to find Hank.) See ya in the New Year!
Awesome New Feature on Portfolio Site
There’s a great new feature on my website, which will allow all you wonderful people out there to download a custom PDF of my photographs. Want to show your clients a selection of my images? Want to print out a couple cool photos for you wall? Go here: http://ryandonnell.com/pdf/ and try it out. It’s easy [...]
Ballerina Abigail Mentzer for Philadelphia Magazine
It’s always fun to make pictures in a building as beautiful and historic as The Academy of Music. For a photographer used to making pictures of “real people,” as we call them in the news biz, having the opportunity to photograph a beautiful and professional ballerina in a 153-year-old opera house is like shooting fish [...]
Behind the Curtain touted by Wired.com
My Behind the Curtain project is getting a little more exposure (oh, so punny.) today. Wired.com‘s “Raw File” blog, which covers interesting photographic projects/subjects, gave a real nice shout out to the project and to my friend Matt Ratajczak’s excellent interview with me. I’d like to thank Pete Brook for making that happen and, BTW, [...]
Interview with Matt Ratajczak on Eat the Darkness
My friend and talented photographer Matt Ratajczak just posted a Q&A with me on his must-follow blog, Eat the Darkness. The interview was on the topic of my “Behind the Curtain” polling place project. Matt asked some great questions about the project’s process and also motivating to work on personal projects. Be fore-warned though…apparently I [...]
Brand New Website!
I finally got my new website live today. The navigation and layout should feel familiar, but the photos are presented bigger and more boldly, though still in two-dimensions. (3D in version 2.0, maybe?) Please check it out when you get a chance: http://www.ryandonnell.com. I’d love to hear any feedback that you might have. And as [...]
Dream Assignment? DC Cocktail Scene for Imbibe Magazine
With my recent beer and cheap eats features for Philly Mag and then this great assignment for the killer magazine, Imbibe, my summer was filled with great food and drink. I couldn’t be a happier photographer. The only way this assignment could have gotten better is if I hadn’t had to drive back to Philly [...]
Philadelphia Magazine Cheap Eats!
Just wanted to give a shout to everyone that helped make Philly Mag’s Cheap Eats cover story a success: Michael, Zoey, Jess, Ryan, Isaac, Matt. A special thanks to Design Director Michael McCormick and Photography Director Zoey Sless-Kitain, for the surgical styling they performed for both the cover and the sandwich spectacular….whew, that was a [...]
Philadelphia Eagles' Joe Banner for Philadelphia Magazine
This shoot sounded simple enough when Art Director Andy Zahn got in touch with me: make a portrait of Eagles president Joe Banner, at the team’s practice field, but do it from a bird’s-eye perspective. I’m not going to bore you with too many details of the actual production, but it involved shooting the pictures [...]