10/22/2026
I moved into this studio in 2018.
It was a welder's shop before me. They knew a photographer was moving in, and they told me they'd cleaned it really well for me. There was a layer of soot and ash on everything. Clean to a welder and clean to a photographer turn out to be very different things. The place smelled like an ashtray. I rented an ozone machine and ran it for 12 hours, and it still took most of that first year, plus a lot of incense and a lot of mopping, before it smelled like anything else.
I've lost count of the coats of paint. The roof has leaked, and once, when the roofers came to fix it, they tore it open and I was cleaning tar and asphalt dust off everything.
I'm in an industrial complex, surrounded by shops. Whenever my landlord stops by, she can't get over how clean it is.
That old tube TV in the front room came with an Atari. During the pandemic my son and I would come in and figure out games together.
Some of the work I'm proudest of was made in this room, and a lot of amazing people have come through that door.
I've always loved having people over. This place lets me do that for a living, and I'm grateful to everyone who's come in.
I love this space.
ryanparkerphotography.com
