Ryan Hulvat has been a professional photographer for 18 years, providing commercial, editorial and advertising photography for national and regional clients including Rodale, Chesapeake Life, Costal Living, Lehigh Valley Style, Lehigh Valley Magazine and PPL. A graduate of the University of Dayton, with a bachelor of fine arts degree in photography, Ryan has assisted with photographers in New York, Dayton and Cincinnati, and he studied abroad in Florence, Italy.
Ryan has been a Banana Factory artist since 2006, seemingly living in the Olympus Digital Imaging Center. During this time, he has continued to push the boundaries of editorial photography, his passion for journaling and teaching students ages 3-80 digital photography. This father of three young artists has taught unseenamerica, PASELA, B-Smart, summer camps and a full lineup of adult classes and workshops. |
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Ryan’s View on Teaching Photography to Kids
“I want kids to realize that they are artists and that they are complex people. They are more than what other people have labeled them. Through an exercise of photographing their hands and having them tell me who they are, they quickly see that they are more than simply a child, or a student, brother, sister, etc. They come up with things like princess, spider, video game player, reader, drawer, runner.
Unlike other mediums, photography is all about making choices - about making good choices. In painting, you start with a blank paper or canvas and add paint to it, but in photography you choose what to show and what not to show. It’s about choosing who you are, what you want to be, and how you share it with other people.
Through photography, these kids see that their ideas are important, regardless of their skill level. They are able to see for themselves on paper that they are valuable. When kids say to me, “Take my picture!, 'on a subliminal level what they are really saying is, 'Show me I am valuable. Take my picture because that affirms that I am of worth.' And, they certainly are of worth!
On Photography
“I’ve always thought of photography as a privileged profession. It gives me an excuse to spend a day on a catfish boat or with a Mennonite farmer when he is digging in the dirt, planting his fields. Most of the people I photograph are real people doing real things. I strive to bring something out of them that’s unique and capture an aspect of them that no one else sees.
Whether I’m shooting food, architecture, people or a travel destination, I view my subjects the same way that I approach the world - with curiosity, passion and a close attention and appreciation for the details!
Photography isn’t only what I do; it has become who I am. I wouldn’t be happy doing anything else."
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