Ryan Lips

Baton Rouge, LA

For more than ten years, I have used a red chair in my photography as both a portrait and self-portrait. It's my way of making a connection with the scene and the viewer through both scale and intimacy. Over time, the subjects and landscapes I've been most drawn to have been ones of ancestry, socioeconomic inequality and the passage of time.



The history of the chair is one of loss and reclamation. It's a chair that was in my room as a young boy and only came back into my possession decades later after being feared lost in Hurricane Katrina. It sat in five inches of floodwaters for nearly two weeks but because the chair is made of cypress wood, it was able to survive.

Artist Website

ryanlips.com