Certainly, McGinley has an exceptional knack for networking and self-promotion, which has given rise to some bitter grumbling in the art world. But you can hardly fault an ambitious young artist for that. It can be difficult, however, to separate the media phenomenon of Ryan McGinley—the precocious, gay, coke-snorting voice of his generation—from the work itself. "I'm just a photographer, not a movie star," McGinley griped to the Times in May. Like it or not, such quasi-celebrity treatment is a function of the lifestyle genre itself. Like Nan Goldin before him, McGinley offers what seem to be stolen glimpses of his own decadent downtown scene, captured in spontaneous yet artfully composed snapshots.

But according to McGinley, this feeling of authenticity is an illusion. "A lot of people look at my work and assume it is all just an autobiography and that my life is as wild and fun as the images I take," he told Artnet in 2004. "I like that assumption, but it's not true. My photographs are really closer to a documentation of my fantasy life."