Samuel Ryde

Samuel Ryde is a London-based photographer known for capturing the un-noticed objects and architecture of everyday human life. His keen eye for detail brings forth remarkable characters from seemingly mundane spaces, such as hand dryers in washrooms, telephone boxes on street corners, and derelict buildings adorned with old signs and new graffiti. Each of these objects carries accidental stories and remnants of moments shared by other people in another place and time. His long-term project, "12:34 pm," which documents the time each day, aims to capture the honest moments of average life. Samuel believes that there is a story in everything, and his goal is to capture the unnoticed moments that make up our daily routines.

Samuel's debut book, "Hand Dryers," published by Unicorn in 2020, is the first of its kind to document and represent the industrial object that we all take for granted. Through his lens, he invites the viewer to take a fresh look at the world it inhabits and the way we treat the anonymity of a bathroom. The book has been featured in prestigious publications like The New York Times, The Guardian, The New York Magazine, and others.

Samuel believes that there is beauty in everything and that stories are everywhere if you look hard enough. He finds something special about the familiar, even if we don't see it. Bathrooms, for instance, represent the moment between the moments - a chance to reflect, both figuratively and literally. They offer a brief moment of purgatory, a rare moment of the day when we are forced to do nothing but be alone with our thoughts. It's a blank canvas, giving life to this machine that we have seen a million times before, but never really looked at. It's at once recognizable but forgettable, and the last moment in our brief routine that is only remarkable with its unremarkable-ness. Samuel's goal is to capture these moments that we never knew we had.