While a majority of his recent work has been produced as digital prints from both color negatives and digital files, most of Ryan's work is done traditionally in a personal darkroom he has maintained for the last 25 years. He regularly uses alternative processes such as kallitypes, ambrotypes, cyanotypes, and orotones. His work in orotones has been included in the Getty Conservation Institute's Research on the Conservation of Photographs project. Ryan's work is also in the permanent collection of The Museum of Fine Arts Houston and has been included in the Museum of Contemporary Photography's Midwest Photographers Project, where it was available "...as a resource for students, researchers, curators, historians, and the general public." A recipient of an Illinois Arts Council Fellowship and a Buhl Foundation Grant, Ryan's work has been featured in publications including Black & White Magazine, Photography Quarterly, Camera Arts Magazine, Diffusion and Photo District News 2007 and 2008 Photo Annuals. He has shown three times in Evanston Art Center's Vicinity Biennial and in the Rockford Museum of Arts Regional Exhibition.

Ryan is currently represented by Meter Gallery in New York, NY, Photoeye Gallery in Santa Fe, NM, and John Cleary Gallery in Houston, TX and regularly exhibits around Chicago. Based in Chicago, Ryan works both in studio and on location, locally and abroad. He accepts commissioned assignments, and his images are available as stock or fine art prints.