Rankin’s top tier place in contemporary culture is unquestioned. As a photographer, he is the documenter of celebrity. That includes The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Kate Moss, Bjork, Kendall Jenner and Queen Elizabeth 11 in a vast collection. His photography has been published everywhere from his own publications to Elle, Vogue, Esquire, GQ, Rolling Stone, and Wonderland, and exhibited in galleries globally, including MoMA, New York, and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. As a director, he has shot music videos for stars such as Miley Cyrus, Rita Ora and Kelis.
As a publisher, Rankin has led culture. He is the co-founder of culture magazine, Dazed & Confused (with Jefferson Hack in 1991) and published the biannual fashion and culture print and digital platform, Hunger, among others.
He built creative and production agency, RANKIN Creative, into an 80+ people team until 2024.
Now, he has compiled cultural history into a book and exhibition called CONTACT, “over 400 pages of contact sheets, scanned exactly as they were, marks and all”.
Full of notes from me, the subjects, and editors. Frames circled in chinagraph, others crossed out, Post-it notes, messages, and scribbles in ballpoint pen. The edit, in our own hands,” Rankin commented. “What I love about contact sheets is that you can actually see the relationship between me and the person I’m photographing developing, frame by frame. The awkwardness, the laughter, the accidents, and those moments when everything just comes together. And then there are all the photographs that never made it. Some for good reason, others I look at now and wonder what on earth I was thinking.”
The book documents twenty years of shooting on film, right up until 2006, including the famed work of the ‘90s. “A contact sheet doesn’t just show you what the photographer saw. It shows you how they thought. It’s a love letter to film, to the joy of the outtake, and most of all, to the people I’ve photographed,” Rankin added.
The book is out at the end of November and the exhibition will be held in the gallery at Rankin’s London studio from December 1.
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