Ryan Weideman


Ryan Weideman is an American photographer, living in New York City, who photographed his passengers while working as a taxi driver there between 1981 and 2016. He produced a book of his photographs, In My Taxi: New York After Hours. He also makes lithographic print-based art.
Weideman's photographic and lithographic prints are held in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Art Institute of Chicago, Harry Ransom Center, Museum of [Fine Arts, Houston] and Portland Art Museum. In 1992 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his photography.

Early life and education

Weideman grew up in the Midwestern United States. In 1973, he earned a BA in photography and printmaking from California [State University, Long Beach|Long Beach State University] at Long Beach, California. In 1975, he earned a MFA in the same subjects from California College of the Arts in Oakland, California. As of 1978 he was living in Oakland.

Life and work

In 1980, Weideman moved to New York City, living in an apartment in Times Square. From 1981, he took a job as a taxi driver and from that vantage photographed his passengers, while working from 5pm to 5am three or four nights a week. The rest of his time was spent developing film and making black and white prints. After the first six or seven years he included himself in the photographs. A book of this work, described in The Independent as "democratic, slice-of-life reportage", was published in 1991 titled In My Taxi: New York After Hours. Weideman stopped driving cabs in 2016 and as of 2018 was still living in the same apartment in Times Square.
He also makes lithographic print-based art.

Publications

Weideman's work is held in the following permanent collections: