Finding the creativity and inspiration to succeed as a premier fashion and editorial photographer is hard enough, keeping it up for more than three decades is a completely different story altogether. 's new show at is a retrospective of Rankin's first decade of work at , one of photography's most influential magazines. Across a ten-year period, from 1991-2001, Rankin photographed over 200 iconic editorials for Dazed and Confused.
I had a chance to ask Rankin a few questions about this stage in his career. I was most interested in how he managed to continually up the stakes as a creative for such a sustained period while working with some of the most dominant personalities in music. If you're in the neighborhood, 180 Studios in London is hosting the retrospective.
If not, enjoy the Rankin images below. According to Rankin, his work from this period forms a manifesto about how to view the world, a political statement communicated not with words but with a camera lens. I was curious what Rankin sees as some of the biggest statements he's trained his camera on over the years.
I was surprised that Rankin didn't zero in on the issues you might assume, those that have taken a front and center seat in his work: LGBTQIA+, (domestic abuse issues), HIV/AIDS, or Oxfam. Instead, Rankin explained that at the heart of his work is the human condition. Of course, as a photographer, Rankin is dealing with a visual medium, and he'd never be happy if the message was heavy-handed and overwhelmed .
