2024

Goodbye house
What stories you have seen. The greatest love story ever told some might say.
You are paper walls in which a love song within a love song was written by weary hands & forlorn eyes.
You were the defibrillator to broken hearts nearly 7 years ago
But my resuscitation was in it’s contents... her.
Tiles & red bricks are the tangled veins that sheltered souls
You gave us a home
Walls & peace that embraced creativity, festivity & superconductivity of love
Hearts entwined, tears on cheeks, kitchen dancing world enhancing magic
What stories you have seen.
Two new souls enter a world that revolves around the axis of you
Paint on walls, finger prints that celebrate all of you
Our perfect solace in which to dream & reach heights unseen before you.
Your walls will be quiet for a while house
But the echoes of chaos, laughter, tears & lives who loved reverberate through the ages of you.
We will think of you house
In decades or more tiny hands open wizened spines & remember you
Eyes crease at the peace of knowing we know you
The nebulae that birthed our flaming star
I entered as a lost soul with lost reality & dreams
I exit as a man that has it all
Goodbye House. Goodbye home.

It's kind of wild that this post has taken me almost 6 months to put out into the world. There's a few reasons why. Number one is who cares. This year I'm really trying to cut back on putting huge amounts of pressure on myself to post constantly, spending time to curate personal posts like these should be cathartic, maybe even pleasurable. As I mentioned in my 2023 year in review I make a book out of the images contained within this year in review every single year. That's a hell of process with umpteen rolls of film & thousands of digital photographs to wade through. I am proud to say I spend just as much time making photographs of my life & loved ones as I do love struck strangers & to me that's just fucking beautiful.

I think another reason it's taken so damn long to get this Year in Review out is just how much crazy shit happened in 2024. The year began with us having our second awesome little dude Sidney Ryan Learoyd on the 1st January. We got married in the Isle of Skye in September, My mum died in October & we made the decision to move house at the end of the year. We definitely don't do things by halves. But looking back at 2024 has given me all the feels. Primarily because just before I hit 40 I feel like I've achieved everything I really wanted in life. I now own my own beautiful home by the sea, Have an incredible family, the most unbelievably talented, supportive & FRICKIN SEXY Wife & of course the frickin greatest job in the world (Yes I can still say that after 15 years)

2024 made me age faster. A year filled to the brim with the chaos that instigated a much needed life change. Yes It has been one of my all time busiest with weddings. But I’ve now hit an age where those life shaking, world shifting moments in time have slapped me round the face to say Ryan life is short. Make decisions that will only enhance your fleeting existence on this floating blue marble in space.

This year I have gained a son, lost a parent & enhanced bonds with the beating heart of my very soul. 2025 is all about the new. One last push of crazy before I can sit my weary bum down & say good fucking job. To all the humans that made those 366 days of 2024 one of a kind & gave me money to feed the menagerie I ry five you.

Thank you from the heart of my bottom.

This is My Love Letter to Life. This is our 2024 in photographs.