Ruth Swanson gives us an exclusive commentary on some of her favorite photos

LA photographer Ruth Swanson gives us an exclusive commentary on some of her favorite photos. 

"I hate doing the dishes.  But I will do anything to get a good photo."

I grew up north of Boston, I drove to Miami and spent a year there when I was 17, at 18 I drove to Burlington, Vermont and spent two years there, on a whim and a two week advance notice of a scholarship I drove cross country to attend the Academy of Art Fashion Program in San Francisco.  After two years I resigned from the program and began a two year, intensive, internship trade, at Rayko Photo, where I worked an hour and got an hour of using and learning all the equipment in the color and black and white darkrooms, full digital lab, volunteered in the gallery, and assisted in workshops.  I asked a thousand questions until I felt ready to go out on my own and started shooting lots of film and printing at the Hamburger Eyes studio.  5 or so years later I moved to Los Angeles and worked as a studio manager for Mike Piscitelli, learning the business aspect of photography.  I then lovingly resigned my position, and now am currently in the process of combining everything I've learned until this point.  I'm releasing a book upon the New Year, I'm launching an online store, PxGxC, and will be launching a second store in January 2015.  I am actively curating and planning a dog benefit art show that will take place in Los Angeles within the next few months as well, in addition to doing freelance work, and documenting my life through Polaroids on a daily basis which will be turned into a zine in February.  I want to create beautiful photos, travel, meet interesting people, and live a life of freedom, independence and with no limit on what I can accomplish.  I love hotels, interior design, clear furniture and clothing, anything mid century modern, metallic, iridescent fabric, and best friends. I'm looking forward to moving all my projects into a downtown LA workspace with full photo studio and hope to live in a factory someday with a house boat docked alongside it decked out with layers of purple satin and Versace bedding.  I live in Echo Park with my boyfriend and The Street Dog, who I raised from a day old and is a part of my soul. I am overly inspired, overwhelmed and firmly believe that anyone who works hard will succeed. Thank you for taking time to look at my photos and I hope you gain some inspiration from not only me, my images, but also from all the amazing people I surround myself with.

Follow my blog and my website (constantly being updated and always in progress).

With sincere regards,

Ruth Swanson

"I moved to Los Angeles with nothing but a trunk-full of clothing, my camera, a laptop, and my boyfriend,JAY HOWELL.  We drove from San Francisco at dawn and borrowed an air mattress from our friends.  Without a single fork or plate or chair to sit in, we spent an embarrassingly long time in this air mattress.  This is the first night in our new apartment which we were so proud of.  Since then, Jay has become the creator and executive producer, amongst other titles, of his own show, called SANJAY AND CRAIG, which rivals only Sponge Bob Square Pants.  Jay is the greatest inspiration to me as he has the strongest work ethic of anyone I've ever known and made himself who he is today by simply doing what he loves, making art.  He never lets self doubt get in the way of creating and has never lost faith in me or what I do and inspires young artists all over the world to create, and above all, to never let money get in the way of making things.  He's a living example of the motto "anything is possible" and for that I adore him and continue to be WOWED by him every day."

"This is PAGE RUTH.  She is a muse.  She is an icon.  She is living art.  She is 16 here and at that point in her life already had her own San Francisco flat and was completely independent.  She embodies the word "cool" and truly uses fashion to express who she is. Her clothing choices are a direct extension of her personality.  I really can't put into words how. amazing. she. is. Google search her name and lose your voice for at least an hour :)

Welcome to artist Matt Furie, aka 2 fast 2 Furie-us.  This is a recent photo of him taken at one of his art shows in a downtown pop up art gallery called Private Island where avant garde performance artist Geneva Jacuzzi played afterwards.  He combed his slicked back hair on repeat all night long without pause this evening.  I met Matt 7 years ago, casually wearing a 70's snow suit bottom and a 90's, belly button revealing crop top.  He once had a secret dance troop with 2 of his best friends and would show up at a party acting casual until the right song would come on, igniting a "thriller" style dance routine, and then go about it like nothing ever happened.  (This is WAY before flash mobs mind you and nothing of the sort) All this aside Matt is an extremely gifted artist and frequently has art show and puts out zines.  He's a sex symbol and hero to nerds everywhere and the sweetest, funniest guy you'll ever meet.   I love him long time.

"Now I bring you to prolific ripper, Tim Presley, who heads the Los Angeles band "WHITE FENCE".  I heard Tim's first album and it struck me so profoundly that I had to photograph him.  I'm VERY inspired by music but NEVER BEFORE had felt so compelled to contact someone.  (This was kind of an embarrassing thing to do, and took a lot of nerve especially when I was just starting out photo wise.) However to my surprise, he responded and ever since I've been shooting almost all of his photos.  At the time he lived in LA and I lived in San Francisco but we were besties before we even met.  Ironically he lives one block away from me now in Echo Park Los Angeles up at the top of a steep hill.  I shot this photo in my driveway at 2 in the morning with a full a full backdrop and lighting set up and had to move out of the street every time a car passed.  Tim recently started his own record label called "Birth Records" and has toured with the band "The Fall" in addition to writing the music for Nickelodeon show "Sanjay and Craig".  He also collaborates with Ty Segall and throws a killer New Years Eve party where dancing on the coffee table is "not off the table" as they say.

Here's a RAD music video that MY BOYFRIEND recently made (with some help of course).

"This is Lena Brown, I saw her walking down the street one day and I ran after her and asked if I could take her photo because she looked so awesome.  We ended up doing basically a full photo shoot and then exchanged numbers and became friends and started hanging out!  She's a super rad chick and is starting a band called Gentle Pony so look out for that!"

"Meet Chelsea, she is... you're never gonna guess..... a PUPPETEER!  She makes the puppets you see on Adult Swim's hit show Robot Chicken.  

She went to school for it and everything. Talk about following your wildest dreams!  Her boyfriend is a puppeteer as well and they work together and are crazy in love.  Chelsea is wearing one of the amazing vintage pieces I'm hoarding away, cataloging, photographing, dry cleaning, sewing, re-constructing etc etc etc. for the online clothing store I am starting.
Check out all the other things Chelsea does, like, does this girl sleep? Ever?"