I first met Ryan McGinley at the restaurant my husband and I own in Cherry Valley, New York. He and his boyfriend spent a few days up here visiting the writer and artist Jack Walls. I wanted to meet Ryan: I love his early, gritty New York photographs of dazed but joyful street kids riding bikes, sleeping in, having sex, and writing graffiti, and his more recent pastoral photographs of young people at play, naked and laughing. I also love his gorgeous photo series of fans in ecstasy at Morrissey concerts. But I didn’t know what to expect; it’s hard not to imagine the worst of someone with the kind of early success Ryan has had. He had a solo show at the Whitney at the age of twenty-four; he has had glowing reviews and features in the New York Times and the New Yorker; he had a show at MoMA P.S. 1; and this year the International Center of Photography named him Young Photographer of the Year. Ryan, as it turns out, has the grace and manners of a choirboy. He has a striking, delicate, Man-Who-Fell-to-Earth glamour. I thought we had an easy rapport—but I think a lot of people feel that way about Ryan. I think it is part of what makes him successful.

I interviewed Ryan in March 2007 at his studio on the Lower East Side.

—Dana Spiotta

I. “SKATEBOARDING IS A LOT LIKE PHOTOGRAPHY BECAUSE SKATEBOARDING IS ABOUT MAKING SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING.”

THE BELIEVER: How did skateboarding help you become an artist?

RYAN McGINLEY: When I was younger I started coming into the city to skateboard on my own—probably when I was about twelve years old. We would skate next to and underneath the Brooklyn Bridge. The area we skated was called the Brooklyn Banks and we would skateboard most days after school. When it got darker, we would slowly make our way up to Astor Place. It was a place all the skaters gathered at night. On the way there was this gallery on Ludlow Street called the Alleged Gallery. This gallery showed a lot of artists—a lot of skateboarders who made art. My friend’s sister was an intern there—she used to sweep up the gallery—and I remember going in and looking at the show and thinking, Wow! This is really cool. I can’t believe that these skateboarders are making art like this. The first show I saw was a Mark Gonzales exhibition. I started going to the openings every month at that gallery and they showed lots of great people. Spike Jonze was really involved and Harmony Korine was really involved and...