American photographer and printmaker
Ryan Weideman (born 1941)[1] is an American photographer, living in New York City, who photographed his passengers while working as a taxi driver there between 1981 and 2016.[2][3] He produced a book of his photographs, In My Taxi: New York After Hours (1991). He also makes lithographic print-based art.
Weideman's photographic and lithographic prints are held in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum,[4] Art Institute of Chicago,[1] Harry Ransom Center,[5] Museum of Fine Arts, Houston[6] and Portland Art Museum.[7] In 1992 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his photography.[8]
Early life and education
Weideman grew up in the Midwestern United States.[9] In 1973, he earned a BA in photography and printmaking from Long Beach State University at Long Beach, California.[10] In 1975, he earned a MFA in the same subjects from California College of the Arts in Oakland, California. As of 1978 he was living in Oakland.[2][11][12]
Life and work
In 1980, Weideman moved to New York City, living in an apartment in Times Square. From 1981, he took a job as a taxi driver and from that vantage photographed his passengers, while working from 5pm to 5am three or four nights a week. The rest of his time was spent developing film and making black and white prints. After the first six or seven years he included himself in the photographs. A book of this work, described in The Independent as "democratic, slice-of-life reportage", was published in 1991 titled In My Taxi: New York After Hours. Weideman stopped driving cabs in 2016 and as of 2018 was still living in the same apartment in Times Square.[2][9][12]
He also makes lithographic print-based art.
Collections
Weideman's work is held in the following permanent collections:
