Originally raised on the East Coast, Los Angeles based photographer Ryan James Caruthers approaches image making through an emotional understanding of his subjects.

Caruthers' work moves fluidly between portraiture, landscape, interiors, and still life. Shaped by a background in art direction, his practice is bound by a distinct voice and a commitment to images that feel deeply personal yet built to endure.

His first monograph, 'I Thought That I Would Be in Heaven But I Am Only Up a Tree', turns to the landscape as a queer space of refuge; a quietly poetic, contemplative body of work.

"He curates a vision out of nature's seemingly unruly vastness that initially overwhelmed Weston and fixes it towards an alternative ethos of calm and rejuvenation, thereby challenging photography's canonical values by seeing them through a more generous, perhaps even healing, lens." - Ocean Vuong

Ryan James CaruthersAaron Moten