Naughty At Church, photograph by Amanda Charchian

In 2000, Ryan McGinley, then a student, staged his first exhibition of photographs in an abandoned SoHo gallery. To coincide with the show, the artist created several handmade books featuring a sampling of his work entitled The Kids Are Alright. A copy eventually found its way into the hands of Sylvia Wolf, then a curator of photography at the Whitney Museum of American Art. In 2003, Wolf mounted an exhibition of his work at the venerable institution, the youngest artist to ever have a solo show at the museum. What Wolf recognized—and what other critics, curators, and collectors would quickly discover—was an artist who understood and chronicled his own generation (habituées of New York City’s downtown) as no artist had before him. McGinley had managed to capture the hedonistic adventures of youth culture—kids hanging out and enjoying life—but without the dark underbelly of earlier artists who mined similar themes. Ryan McGinley ‘s first major monograph of his photography, entitled Whistle for the Wind [Rizzoli], which is hardcover and includes a consideration by Gus Van Sant, will be officially released tomorrow June 26, but is available to preorder now.

Jessica eating a watermelon on the first day of Summer, photograph by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Adarsha Benjamin & Perry Shimon, photograph by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Photograph by Sisilia Piring

The Original Smashbox Photo Assistants Show is will be opening this Friday in Los Angeles.  Happening each year since 1995, The Smashbox Assistant show has celebrated up and coming Los Angeles based photographers. Opening party Friday June 22, 2012—LightBox Stage in Culver City, RSVP here, 8549 Higuera Street Culver City, CA 90232

Charles A. Hartman gallery in Portland presents Summertime, a poignant early body of work by the photographer Mark Steinmetz. The photographs in this exhibition were taken between 1984 and 1991. They were made in Boston and New England, Chicago and rural Illinois, and Knoxville, Tennessee. Like all of Steinmetz’s images, they embrace the space between artist and subject with a curiosity that is empathetic and enigmatic. Summertime, a recently published monograph by Nazraeli Press will accompany the exhibition. Summertime will be on view from June 20 to July 28, 2012 at Charles A. Hartman Fine Art, 134 NW 8th Avenue, Portland, Oregon

Adarsha Benjamin joins Soko and band on stage at The Bottom of the Hill. Check out Adarsha & Soko’s music video collaboration for the beautiful song We Might Be Dead by Tomorrow here. Photograph by Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Photograph Oliver Maxwell Kupper

Pace Gallery and Pace/MacGill in New York announce that they will represent legendary american photographer Lee Friedlander, who shot Madonna nude for Playboy (above)— he will continue to be represented by San Francisco’s Fraenkel Gallery — and will present a two-part exhibition of his work at their 32 East 57th Street locations in the fall.

In December of 2011 while walking on Sunset Blvd, near the intersection of Vine Street, Gregory Bojorquez was caught in the crossfire of a shoot out between a gunman and LAPD. As Bojorquez instinctively snapped pictures, police shot the gunman dead in the street. One innocent bystander was also shot and later died in the hospital. Bojorquez’ photographs were carried by hundreds of newspapers around the world, but have never before been available to view as a sequence of fine art prints. Using these series of photographs as a backbone, Bene Taschen (son of Benedict Taschen) has curated a retrospective of sorts of photographs by Bojorquez from the 90s and 2000s. Gregory Bojorquez .45 POINT BLANK will be on view at the Hardhitta Gallery  until July 12, East Annex, 5900 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA