This exhibition, second in the Whitney's “First Exposure” series, presents twenty chromagenic prints that are much larger than the reproductions in style magazines through which McGinley's work is best known. Unfortunately, many of the pictures do not survive the added scrutiny when shown in a museum context and, at the same time, the self-conscious nature of many of his subjects works against him on the gallery walls.

It can be difficult to critique the work of someone who is only on the tentative first steps of an art career. The word “juvenile” springs to mind, as here when confronted with an unaesthetic close-up of semen stains on light blue pants or a holiday snapshot of friends in the surf. Redeeming qualities can be found in the more recent pictures. Lizzie (2002) is balanced mid-stride, nude. The innocence of her face and bashful pose contrasts with her mature body and is neatly paralleled: behind her, the frame is bisected vertically by a wall half covered with graffiti and half with the outer-space wallpaper of a child's bedroom. In another work, a kid idling on the train tracks and sporting a scruffy beard has exceptionally clear eyes that draw in the viewer. However, not unlike his oft-mentioned artistic forbears Nan Goldin and Wolfgang Tillmans, McGinley needs an editor to separate these effortlessly beautiful photographs from their uninspired counterparts.

The work of Goldin (and to a lesser extent, Tillmans) depends largely on a deep trust between subject and photographer, a trust that I imagine McGinley is still attempting to build. However, that may prove difficult to achieve, as the exhibition brochure tells us that his subjects “perform for the camera and expose themselves with a frank self-awareness that is distinctly contemporary. The camera is... an accomplice in the construction of the world they wish to create for themselves.” His subjects are too invested in Ryan McGinley the photographer. They look beyond his camera, picturing their faces on magazine pages and gallery walls, and the artifice is apparent in the final prints. A viewer removed from the scene of these “constructions” will view them as style, not art.

Does Goldin's fame preclude McGinley's ability to capture the personal moments she photographs? Perhap McGinley feels we have crossed a cultural threshold that makes that artistic project no longer tenable. Goldin's subjects look away from the camera because they are engaged with life; his look away because they hope to be pictured so engaged. The difference is slim, but at this point it is one that separates the images that last from those that are forgotten the morning after.