Growing up in a world full of cargo shorts, blunts and burritos, Ryan Kobane admits that he didn’t have the most inspiring upbringing in San Diego, California. Enter New York City, the mecca of all creativity.

Only weeks after graduating in 2008 with a bullshit degree, Ryan moved to The Big Apple with a bag full of cameras and another full of inappropriate clothing. After pushing pixels for a living at countless magazines year after year, a new dream came to life. When asked what sparked this next step in his career, Ryan says:

“I knew that if I put as much passion into a life behind a viewfinder as I had into the world of tangible print, that I’d make it work. The last few years haven’t been glamorous by any means, but I’ve been incredibly lucky to find myself in some fantastic situations that have allowed me to express my creativity with a camera.”

Now working as a lifestyle, fashion, music, and event photographer, he has found himself looking for the unconventional crop – the humorous angle on a world that is often taken a little bit too seriously.

Oh and he never studied photography – he’s self taught kiddies, but he did nanny for a bit to make ends meet (the glamourous side of the creative life) for Jessica Craig Martin. This is where he found the inspiration from her photography to find a different angle, or to tell a story without stating the obvious.

More than anything, Jessica’s photography just reinforced the idea for Ryan that everything doesn’t have to be so stock. Point a camera where everyone else isn’t, and see what happens. Enjoy the results below: