Ethan James Green

Biography

Ethan James Green’s distinctive eye for the personal and essential beauty of his subjects has made him one of the most compelling photographers working today.

The Michigan-born, New York-based photographer blends the frankness of his native midwest with the breadth and brilliance of his adopted city resulting in portraits of astonishing intimacy that capture and amplify the essence of his subjects. Working in themes such as contemporary identity, sexuality, and style, he has built a body of work singular in its depth and point of view.

Green’s first book, Young New York (2019, Aperture), is a collection of portraits taken of friends and collaborators in the parks of downtown New York that chronicles the scope of queer identity of the past decade. His forthcoming, Bombshell (2024, Baron), is a study of feminine performance, erotic costume, and beauty in collaboration with hair stylists Lucas Wilson, Jimmy Paul, and Sonny Molina.

Elaborating on his highly personal vision of New York’s artistic community, Green founded New York Life Gallery in the fall of 2022. The Chinatown-based gallery invites visitors into a circle of downtown artists with exhibitions and programming that centers on emerging and mid-career artists, unknown archives, and 20th-century artworks.

His work has appeared in such publications as Aperture, Arena Homme +, Dazed, Double Magazine, Foam Magazine, i-D, L’Uomo Vogue, M le Monde, Perfect, The New Yorker, Time, Vogue, Vogue Italia, W Magazine, and WSJ Magazine. He has also collaborated with a range of fashion labels, among them Alexander McQueen, Dior, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Miu Miu, Prada, Tom Ford, and Versace.

Solo Exhibitions

2022 Made to Last, Fotografiska, New York, NY

Group Exhibitions

2024 Turn My Way, OCDChinatown, New York, NY
2021 Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2019 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize, Photographer in Focus, The National Portrait Gallery, London, UK
2019 Self Service 25th Anniversary, Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, TX

Awards

2016 LensCulture Portrait Awards, New York, NY

Selected Press

Dazed 2022
AnOther 2022
The New Yorker 2019
AnOther 2019
BOF 2019
WSJ 2019
LensCulture 2019
The New York Times 2017

Panels

2022 Made to Last, Fotografiska, April 20th
2021 Vogue Forces of Fashion, Virtual, November 17th
2020 In conversation with Brenden Embser, Virtual, Aperture, April 25th
2019 Aperture Conversations: Young New York, BAM, June 19th
2017 Aperture “Elements of Style”, The New School, October 24