Rankin

Career

Rankin is a British pho­tog­ra­pher, pub­lisher, and film direc­tor. He also heads his name­sake agency, RANKIN Creative, which brings together a team of more than 80 peo­ple under one roof, com­bin­ing strat­egy, cre­ativ­ity, and pro­duc­tion.
Through RANKIN Creative, he is par­tic­u­larly known for his work at the fore­front of cul­ture and future trends, pro­duc­ing ground­break­ing cam­paigns for brands such as Unilever, L’Oréal, and Samsonite. He also cre­ates large-​scale projects for char­i­ties includ­ing Woman’s Aid and MacMillan, and directs music videos for artists such as Miley Cyrus, Rita Ora, and Kelis. 

Visual Style

As a pho­tog­ra­pher, Rankin’s port­fo­lio ranges from por­trai­ture to doc­u­men­tary work. He has pho­tographed The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Kate Moss, Kendall Jenner, and Queen Elizabeth, among many others. 

Major Series and Works

As a pub­lisher, Rankin co-​founded Dazed & Confused mag­a­zine with Jefferson Hack in 1991 and later cre­ated AnOther and AnOther Man, along with more than 40 books and Hunger, the bian­nual fash­ion and cul­ture mag­a­zine avail­able in both print and dig­i­tal formats.

Recognition

His pho­tographs have been pub­lished widely, from his own pub­li­ca­tions to Elle, Vogue, Esquire, GQ, Rolling Stone, and Wonderland. They have been exhib­ited in gal­leries around the world, includ­ing the MoMA in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Rankin lives in London with his wife Tuuli and their dogs.

Reading the Work

Rankin’s work finds its bal­ance in a direct, ener­getic, and often provoca­tive uni­verse, where imagery ques­tions celebrity, iden­tity, and visual codes. It is dis­tin­guished by a sig­nif­i­cant pres­ence in British visual cul­ture, graphic energy, and an abil­ity to rein­vent con­tem­po­rary por­trai­ture. Viewing his work ben­e­fits from close atten­tion to nuance: a com­po­si­tional detail, a cer­tain dis­tance from the sub­ject, a par­tic­u­lar light or tex­ture often reveals its deeper meaning.