Rankin

Rankin (1966). Scottish photographer. He is a very representative figure in the new British wave of photography: aggressive, transgressive, and exceedingly rich in creativity, a creativity that contaminates all fields of endeavor and is willing to engage in irony; Rankin himself is now widely recognized for his highly personal style as one of the leading figures now working in the field of fashion photography. In 1991, he founded, with Jefferson Hack, Dazed and Confused, which immediately won acclaim as one of the most influential and unpredictable publications in the field, with such innovations as a layout that made it possible to leaf through the magazine in either of two directions. Alongside the individual pictures that were featured on the covers, Rankin also often did photography for shocking layouts (in one famous layout, a model wore an outfit that caught fire), but he also worked for such publications as Rolling Stone, Interview, Spin, Big Issue, The Guardian, Harper’s Bazaar, Independent on Sunday, and Snoozer. In 1999 he opened with Alex Pround, a series of London galleries bearing the name, the publishing house Vision On, which debuted with his first book, Nudes, followed by others, such as CeleBritation (his best-known portraits), Snog, and Sofasosexy in 2002. With other publishingh houses, he published the retrospective collection, Rankin Works, in 2000 and, in 2002, Work in Progress # 1, Breeding (black and white studies of androgynous models), printed in a signed, limited edition of 1500 copies. In 2000, he introduced the fashion quarterly Rank and the magazine Another in which he continued his line of promotion of young creators. He has done many photographs for album covers: for U2, Spice Girls, Pulp, Salad, Morissey, and Maniac Street Preachers, though if the subject turns to portraits, then the most important one is the photograph he took of Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her Jubilee, along with the photographs of nine other selected photographers. The portrait was exhibited at Windsor Castle in February 2002 and then moved to the National Portrait Gallery in London. Recently Rankin has also begun to direct short films. He has had numerous shows in Europe and in the United States.