RANKIN

John Rankin Waddell, working name Rankin, born 1966 in Scotland is a British portrait and fashion photographer.

Earning a reputation for creative portraiture and a talent for capturing the character and spirit of his subjects, Rankin quickly became a formidable force in photography, shooting Brit-pop bands including Pulp and Blur and pop stars such as Kylie and Madonna. Rankin's career continued to blossom and covers for German Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Area and GQ quickly followed.

His body of work includes some of the most influential politicians, popular musicians, revered artists and celebrated models since the early 90's. However, Rankin also continued to take on projects that featured ordinary people, often questioning established notions of beauty and causing controversy and igniting debates along the way.

Rankin's portraits portray an element of the subject's personality in his shots. For example, he shot Lindsay Lohan (formally young and pure, now gone off the rails). He used her current image, styling her in leather with messy hair and heels, but with child-like, defensive poses; contrasting the past with the present. He will take their most dominant feature and attempt to make it the main focus of the image.

Rankin's images (especially his fashion shots and his special projects) have the common theme of nudity, or sexual hints. He likes to focus on the female body, and display it in it's whole, natural form. On his website, he has a whole section dedicated to lingerie, and has a special project circulating around macro images of people in open mouthed kisses.

"With my photographs I'm always trying to capture something a bit quirky about someone, something a bit different, because that's what I find beautiful. It's about being honest about what I see, but I also don;t want to take pictures that piss people pff. I don't want people to be upset when they look at their own image."