My name is Ryan Rogers. I was born and raised in Hawaiʻi and am now based in New York. Growing up on an island meant that I was always surrounded by beautiful nature and always felt a distance from the "real" world. I felt like I lived in my own little bubble, with my parents, twin brother, and King Charles Cavalier dog in our house next to the ocean. When I got more serious about my photography, I began to make work that was inspired by this feeling of utopia, or what I imagined an ideal world looking like. My work began incorporating surreal elements, pastel color pallets, and vacant, whimsical locations to create the utopias I saw in my imagination. When all these things came together, I was able to find my artistic voice in the dreamy, narrative-driven photography that I am now known for creating.
