Rankin launches social media campaign for World Heart Day

Rankin is one of Britain’s most famous and important photographers, he is the David Bailey of our times and in many ways as influential. He is a photographer who is at the top of his profession as his website shows.    He is also a man, a good man who cares about a wide range of issues and he is putting his considerable prowess and exposure behind a campaign for the “Heart for a Heart” campaign, created for World Heart Day

The “Heart for a Heart” campaign, created for World Heart Day

The “Heart for a Heart” campaign, created for World Heart Day, is a response to the fact that every three minutes someone dies from heart or circulatory disease in the UK. Its aim is to get people who spend their days tapping the heart symbol on Instagram and Twitter to instead design their own heart-inspired artwork and post it on social media on World Heart Day, on Friday. From The Guardian

Rankin by Photograph: Anthony Devlin/PA

“You have great artwork to inspire everybody,” he said. “Everyone can draw a heart, it’s one of the simplest symbols to draw and it works across all cultures and languages. The heart is the universal symbol. It can be romantic, it can be broken, it can be used on T-shirts to profess a love for a city. And, in recent years, it is synonymous with social media. The team and I wanted to make that mean something.”

“I am not an expert,” he said. “I just think it’s important to research these things for yourself. I am definitely a short, fat, very unhealthy bloke so if I can do a little bit, then everybody can do it. This is a fun way of going, ‘It’s important to look after yourself,’ and I like the idea of a social media conceit that is not just liking something.”

The photographer and the BHF are asking people to upload their artwork to social media on Friday using the hashtag #heartforaheart, tagging @TheBHF.

Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with being a short, fat photographer but I take his point, getting healthy and supporting this good cause is important

So what will you do, will you ignore the request,  or will you upload some artwork to spread the word and share the love?

 

Rankin: ‘I see the person, not the celebrity’

Rankin is undoubtedly one of my favourite photographers. Not just because he makes wonderful pictures but also because he is a truly right on bloke. I found this interview with him in the Telegraph By Charlotte Williamson

The moment Rankin glimpsed the Queen laughing with one of her staff, he knew that was the shot he wanted. “I watched her walk down this long corridor at Buckingham Palace with a guy who must have been at least 6ft. She’s tiny, and she was looking up at him, smiling and chatting, and I thought, ‘You’re exactly what I want you to be. You’re a real person’. ”

But the photographer, who shot Her Majesty back in 2002 as part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations, had only five minutes, and was desperate to make her laugh again. “So I started saying ‘Ma’am’, like ‘jam’. ‘Ma’am, you have to smile, please’ – I was like Austin Powers. And she just laughed at me. She was really funny, making a lot of jokes – very dry. Photography is all about collaboration – and she gave it to me.”

The end result is the Queen grinning in front of the Union flag. “She wrote back to me, having seen the shot, saying, ‘I love the stitching on the flag’. That’s the Queen’s way of not having an opinion. That’s classy. It’s like saying, ‘I like the photograph, I’m just not commenting on myself’.

“David Bailey took a photograph of her last year and he made her laugh as well,” he adds. “His is better than mine. I was quite young when I took mine. He’s a bit nearer her age. His is so brilliant. But then, I made her laugh first!”

In much the same way that Bailey documented the Sixties, Rankin catalogued the Nineties, befriending the celebrities he shot – Jude Law, Kate Moss, Kylie Minogue – dating models and generally having a very good time. This was partly aided by Dazed & Confused, the style magazine he launched in 1992, which was at the forefront of popular culture.

Read the full article here

Other articles about Rankin

https://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2011/05/06/rankin-todays-great-photographer-and-a-thoroughly-decent-bloke/

https://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2011/12/02/america-in-pictures-the-story-of-life-magazine-by-rankin-on-the-bbc/

https://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/rankin-hunger-tv/

https://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2014/02/08/the-addiction-of-photography-rankin/

https://oxfordschoolofphotography.wordpress.com/2014/10/28/lillian-bassman-talks-to-rankin/

LILLIAN BASSMAN talks to Rankin

You may remember the rather beautiful pictures by Lillian Bassman that we featured previously here well she has popped up again and this time talking to that man Rankin

Lillian Bassman entered the world of publishing at Harper’s Bazaar as a protégée of Alexey Brodovitch, the acclaimed art director of the magazine from 1938 to 1958. Initially a student on his Design Laboratory course, Bassman was given an internship at the magazine in 1941, and a permanent title four years later, when Junior Bazaar was launched. She stayed with Harper’s Bazaar until the 60s, and during this time she became a photographer. She was known to spend hours in the darkroom experimenting with unusual techniques, including using tissues to bring certain areas of a photograph into focus, applying bleach to change tone and washing prints in the bath to achieve dreamy effects. Her signature high-contrast, black-and-white, graphic-style images won her a new-found appreciation in the 90s, when a cache of discarded negatives resurfaced. Before her death in 2012, at the age of 94, Rankin had a conversation with Lillian Bassman about her career and the art of photography.

RANKIN: I’M A BIG FAN OF YOUR WORK. HOW DID IT ALL START FOR YOU?....want to know what she said? Go here

 

The Addiction of Photography: Rankin

Rankin is one of my favourite photographers because he tackles everything from high fashion to style magazines to charity work, all with exceptional skill, vision, wit and understanding. I have featured him before on these pages but this Spotlight on Faded + Blurred has so much more.

“There’s a time when people say your work is revolutionary, but you have to keep being revolutionary. I can’t keep shooting pop stars all my life. You have to keep changing, keep pushing yourself, looking for the new, the unusual.” – Rankin
Allowing ourselves to be inspired by the work of others is important to any artist. I am always looking to other photographers for inspiration and to help me explore different styles and techniques. There are those that I look at and think, “I could do what they do”, and then there are those whose work seems to be flawless and I think I should just take my toys and go home. Or, as Jeffery would say,”He makes me want to go work at Starbucks.” Rankin is one of those photographers.

When I first looked at Rankin’s work, I noticed several things. Of course his lighting is perfect, and his use of color is amazing, and his black and whites are stunning. But beyond the technical details , Rankin is an expert at capturing the character of the people he shoots. If I had to pick one thing that I love about his work it would be the eyes. They seem to jump out at you in almost every shot.

My favorite of the campaigns he has done for charities is the one he did for Oxfam. In 2008 he visited the Democratic Republic of Congo to highlight the forgotten conflict in the country. He took a series of portraits of people who had fled the conflict and were living in refugee camps. The expressions on some of their faces are priceless. “I went with the idea of making them human beings,” he says, “It was a liberation to do photographs that were purely about the subject. An artist of any description becomes very self-obsessed. You just do.”….READ MORE

 

 

Read more here

 

Rankin + Hunger TV

Rankin is one of our favourite photographers over here at OSP Towers, and he has just started a new project that is a sort of online version of a magazine called Hunger TV. We wrote about the great man that is Rankin before, if you missed that go here and we also wrote about another of his projects, a tv documentary on Life Magazine here

About Hunger

“The Hunger is a biannual magazine from photographer and publisher, Rankin. Launched in November 2011 – 20 years after Dazed & Confused was founded, and 10 years after the birth of AnOther – The Hunger provides a new platform for uncompromised self-expression, innovation and discovery. Working with both experienced and emerging talents in the arts, fashion and editorial, The Hunger seeks out cultural progression and distinction. Each issue of the magazine features both a male and female cover.

The hungertv.com website launched simultaneously with the magazine, with a unique focus on video content – fashion films, behind the scenes footage and exclusive performances, collaborations, and interviews.”

This is issue 2 and here is what is contained within:

“For the second issue of The Hunger, on sale on the 10th May 2012, our cover stars are the prolific Italian actress Monica Bellucci and the young Irish actor on a trajectory to international stardom, Robert Sheehan. For our limited edition hardback, model and photographer Helena Christensen, with an exclusive silver poster of Helena included inside. Helena also contributed a shoot to the magazine.

This issue, we spoke to the finest talents in British culture. Thriving Brits: a look at the work of fashion designers Katie Eary, Henry Holland, Craig Lawrence, Louise Gray and James Long. Visualising Music, where The Hunger met with 
art directors Storm Thorgerson and Mark Farrow among others, to discuss how they created some of the most iconic sleeve artwork of our time. And Art in the East End: we journeyed around east London stopping off to chat to Polly Morgan, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Mat Collishaw and Gilbert & George and found out about the impact the area has had on their art, and that they have had on the area. From the world of music, we spoke to The Black Keys, Theo Parrish and The Gossip to name a few.

From film, Juliette Binoche, Werner Herzog, Mark Strong, Malcolm McDowell, Annabelle Wallis, Tilda Swinton and Toby Kebbell. In fashion, we spent time with Heidi Klum, Pam Hogg, Jean-Claude Jitrois, and a host of designers, who told us why couture’s influence will never decline. We also worked with renowned makeup artists, Ayami Nishimura, Caroline Saulnier and Andrew Gallimore, the latter who showed us the future of mens beauty in Out of Darkness. Filmed interviews and fashion films are available to watch exclusively at hungertv.com.”

LIFE GOES ON: DAMIAN BIRD

Photojournalist Damian Bird tells us how his online photo-essay magazine, Life Force, has literally given him his life back…MORE

In-between Days : Joseph Szabo

 

“Priscilla, wandering across Jones Beach, hoiking up her jeans, her cigarette dangling from her lips. Like The Pixies Surfer Rosa or Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork  Orange, the image has served as a cult reference for generations of youthful impudents. Chosen by the band Dinosaur Jr for the cover of their breakthrough 1991 album, Green Mind, the photograph taken by Joseph Szabo hasn’t aged a bit in the 43 years since it was taken. At the time it was shot Joseph was a young, liberal teacher trying to find ways to connect with and inspire his students.”....more of this article

 

Rankin, he is the man

America in Pictures: The Story of Life Magazine by Rankin on the BBC

I missed this on TV last night but thanks to the BBC iplayer it is available to watch whenever you want. Rankin celebrates the work of Life magazine’s legendary photographers, who shot the big moments in American history – from the assassination of Robert F Kennedy to the Vietnam War. Rankin is just one of the coolest photographers working today but what makes this man important is that he actually is interested in photography and in this documentary he reveals the story of the illustrated magazines that populated the newsagents shelves and stands in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. If you don’t know what I mean have a look at this earlier post here

If you want to watch this programme at your leisure here is the link to the BBC page with the iplayer

Rankin – todays Great Photographer and a thoroughly decent bloke

To many people, those not interested in photography, there has only ever been one photographer of note, certainly in the UK anyway, it would be interesting to know if there were similar examples in other countries, but I digress. Everyone who owns a dslr or before that a film slr would have, at some time, had said to them, who do you think you are, David Bailey?

Bailey was and is a fine photographer, he defined the look of the the 60’s a halcyon time for some. It was his pictures that made the time swing, he was influential and popularised photography made it aspirational. It does seem a shame that he is the only photographer known even today, some might hazard a guess at that royal bloke (Lichfield [Lord]) or the one that photographed Diana (Mario Testino) but do we have someone to define our times and who should be known?

I would suggest that in the UK we have a perfect opportunity to supplant Bailey in the general populations’ mind as the photographer with the excellent Rankin.

You probably know his pictures even if you don’t know his name, his work is fashion, advertising, portraits, beauty and special projects. I think he has everything Bailey had, he is supremely talented, a technician and artist. Have a look at his beautiful website

In 2010 he traveled to South Africa, you may have seen a documentary about his trip, through encounters with legendary conflict photographers the Bang Bang Club, documentary photographer David Goldblatt and photojournalist Alf Kumalo amongst others, Rankin went on a compelling and moving photographic journey to see the nation through their gaze.

There is a portfolio of Rankin’s pictures from the South Africa trip on the Independent Newspaper website here and here is an interview where he talks about the trip to The Guardian

He also went to DRC (Congo) for Oxfam

There is an Oxfam book of Rankin’s portraits from Congo which you can buy here

Rankin kicked off 2009 by inviting people across the UK to participate in his most ambitious project to date – Rankin Live! A show of two halves, Rankin Live brought the museum-scale retrospective of the last 22 years in Rankin’s photographic life together with the portraits of 1,500 of today’s British public. This was a huge undertaking that involved Rankin photographing the ordinary people of Britain. Known for his celebrity portraits he brought his skill and vision plus his humanity to a new project. You can see many of these portraits on his website here is a link

Rankin from the models’ viewpoint

James Anthony by Rankin. Photograph: Rankin

This is what James Anthony says about the experience…”

It’s a cold, wet February morning and I’m schlepping down Brick Lane in east London to have my photo taken by Rankin, one of the world’s most famous portrait and fashion photographers. The studio is a vast exhibition room in the Old Truman Brewery, a fascinating and spooky place whose former owners are mentioned in David Copperfield.

I’m here for Rankin Live!, a staggeringly ambitious project to photograph 1,000 people from around the UK. Rankin will shoot, instantly project, print and hang a portrait of each subject, with the finished photographs being exhibited in the gallery. They will also be made available to buy for £50, with profits going to Oxfam……more

So are you impressed yet by this extraordinary photographer? I think it must be time to go and have another look through his portfolios this will take you there