An infamous workaholic, Rankin has photographed subjects from Kate Moss to the Queen from Tony Blair to Oasis. Looking at his body of work it is also clear that celebrity holds little allure for him, some of his most outstanding images are from a series of nudes featuring ordinary people who answered an advert in Time Out asking how they would like to be photographed. He consistently seduces with his images, by drawing out individual personality, while considering and commenting on broader ideas.
Rising to every challenge, Rankin has never shied from portraying difficult subject matters, addressing issues from domestic violence to body image in both his personal work as well as charity and commercial projects. He made headlines again with his campaign for Dove showing women who differed from the usual stick-thin advertising stereotype. He has also shot prominent charity campaigns for Amnesty International, Everyman, Special Olympics, Oxfam, Teenage Cancer Trust, Refuge, The Teaching Awards, Women’s Aid, Women’s Vote, Breast Cancer Awareness and Youth Music.
Not content with still images, he has turned his lens to filmmaking. The short film he directed for Film Four, ‘Perfect’, was one of the few shorts shown at the Los Angeles, Raindance and Edinburgh film festivals. His first feature film, ‘The Lives of the Saints’, a darkly comic morality tale written by Tony Grisoni (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) and starring an all-British cast, is now available on DVD. Distributed by Tartan films, the film been shown in numerous festivals this year, winning the grand jury prize in Salento.
In December 2006 he published the book ‘TuuliTastic' - A Photographic Love Letter’, featuring an exclusive combination of commissioned fashion, advertising and editorial images of Tuuli, Rankin’s favourite model and muse. Then in January 2007 Rankin published ‘Beautyfull’, a book that brought together the most photographed women in the world in a powerful display of beauty. ‘TuuliTastic’ and ‘Beautyfull’ were both accompanied by intimate exhibitions in London as part of ‘The Series’, a six-month programme of exhibitions that ran from November 2006 to summer 2007. The other exhibitions ran under the titles: ‘Eyescapes’, ‘Me Me Me’, ‘Erotica’ and ‘Polaroids’.
Rankin also published a retrospective book in 2007 called ‘Visually Hungry’. The book documents his extraordinary career, drawing together over 400 images from two decades of work. From his first shots as a student, to his most recent self-portraits and everything in between, the book is a selection of the artist’s favourite pictures. He exhibited a selection of these works at the International Photo-festival Knokke-Heist in Belgium.
In September 2007, Rankin held his debut American solo show in Los Angeles at the Fahey/Klein gallery, entitled ‘Eye Candy’. Of the show, that featured a selection of his favourite female nude images, Rankin said simply, “There’s no point in dressing it up, I love women and I love taking photos, it’s more like a fantastic hobby than a job.”
Rankin has already kicked off 2008 with prominent exhibitions in Moscow and Paris, and has no less than eight books in the pre-production.
Rankin lives in London and has a twelve-year-old son, Lyle.
