Ryan Speers is an American photographer based in Los Angeles whose work has taken him to destinations around the world, including Ireland, Hong Kong, Africa, India, and Singapore. His freelance work has appeared in film and television, and has been published in Forbes, Suitcase Magazine, and independent photobooks, such as Subjectively Objective.
His major works include "Power," which explores the power infrastructure across the modern American landscape, and “Metropolis,” a medium format film series about two of the largest American cities, LA and Chicago. The former was published as a photo journal in the international travel publication Suitcase Magazine.
Born in Iowa and raised in northern Illinois, Speers developed an early love for nature while making short films in the oak-hickory forests and wide-open landscapes of the Midwest. After high school, he traded farmland for skyscrapers and earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film, Video, and Photography at Columbia College Chicago in 2006. In addition to working as a darkroom manager, a class TA, and a lecturer at the film equipment center during college, Ryan also trained students in black-and-white printmaking and the use of 16mm film cameras.
Since moving to Los Angeles in 2010, he has worked for the Emmy-winning creative studio Imaginary Forces, as well as at other creative agencies, including Innocean USA and Conscious Minds.
Ryan’s documentary style, influenced by his background in commercial work and his passion for graphic design, combines traditional documentary approaches with unconventional lighting and camera techniques to create striking and unique compositions.
