Rankin (photographer) - Life and Career

Life and Career

Waddell was brought up in St Albans, Hertfordshire. Whilst studying accounting at Brighton Polytechnic, he realised that his interests lay elsewhere and dropped out, taking up the study of photography at Barnfield College Luton and then London College of Printing. During this time, Rankin met Jefferson Hack, with whom he formed a working relationship. The two decided to start a magazine together called Dazed & Confused once they had graduated.

In 1999 Hack and Rankin founded Dazed Film & TV, a production company that would produce the first mast-head television broadcast ever, the four hour special Renegade TV Gets Dazed, for Channel 4. In December 2000 Rankin launched his own quarterly fashion magazine, RANK. He also publishes Another Magazine, Another Man and more recently "HUNGER".

His many subjects have included Britney Spears, Kate Moss, Kylie Minogue, Spice Girls, Madonna, David Bowie, Björk, Juliette Binoche, Lily Allen, Cheryl Cole, Kevin Spacey, The Rolling Stones, Vivienne Westwood, Cate Blanchett, Damien Hirst, Queen Elizabeth II, Tony Blair and M.I.A..

In addition, Rankin has donated his services to publicity campaigns for the charitable organisation Women's Aid, providing photographs for use in the What's it going to take? and Valentine's Day campaigns.

Rankin began 2009 by inviting people across the UK to participate in his project Rankin Live!. A show of two halves, Rankin brought a museum scale retrospective of the last 22 years of Rankin’s photographic life, together with portraits of 1500 of today’s British public. Open to people over thirteen who had a distinctive style, sense of British eccentricity and enthusiasm. The participants were invited to the Rankin Live exhibition at the Truman Brewery in August to sit for their personal shoot. The portraits produced on the day were hung as part of the ever-changing exhibition and uploaded to the Rankin Live website.

In April 2009 Rankin created ‘’Annroy’’, a contemporary structure designed by Trevor Horne Architects that is home to Rankin’s own state-of-the-art photographic studio, gallery and living space, where he lives with his wife and model Tuuli Shipster. Each month ‘’Annroy’’ holds a different exhibition, which features some of Rankin’s current work.

Rankin was first married to actress Kate Hardie. They married in 1995, divorced in 1998 and had a son, Lyle, together.

Rankin has photographed some of Hollywood’s most famous people and has shot some world-renowned campaigns, including Nike, Umbro, Reebok, Marks and Spencer’s, Rimmel, L’Oreal, Hugo Boss, Levi's, Shiatzy Chen, Thomas Wylde, Longchamp, Aussi, Madonna for H&M, Dove, BMW, and Coca Cola.

Rankin has made commercial television advertisements with Chris Cottam, including for the Dove range of products and Rimmel cosmetics. The duo also made The Lives of the Saints, a gangster film set in London. They have also made music promo videos for Kelis ‘’Acapella”, Nelly Furtado ‘’Say It Right’’, Marina and the Diamonds ‘’I Am Not A Robot’’, Robyn ‘’Cobrastyle’’, Sky Ferreira "One", The Noisettes Ever Fallen in Love, and The Enemy ‘’No Time for Tears’’.

In January 2009, BBC 4 broadcast his 1 hour documentary Seven Photographs that Changed Fashion, in which he created his own tributes to the iconic images by Cecil Beaton, Erwin Blumenfeld, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, David Bailey and Guy Bourdin. He interviewed an array of original photographers, models and assistants, and used contemporary models including Heidi Klum, Erin O'Connor, Jade Parfitt, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, his wife Tuuli Shipster, Mollie Gondi, Daphne Guinness and David Gandy.

In 2010, Rankin travelled to South Africa with the BBC to shoot the documentary, South Africa in Pictures. He explored the country’s rich photographic tradition, discovering how its photographers have captured this complex and turbulent nation through some remarkable images, charting the important role that photography has played in documenting its story. The same year, Rankin was commissioned by Nike and Bono’s R.E.D in the fight against HIV/AIDS, to shoot a global Nike campaign, Lace Up Save Lives, to raise awareness about the disease.

Rankin was involved with television reality show Britain's Missing Top Model. The show followed eight young women with disabilities who competed for a modeling contract, which includes a photo shoot with Rankin and a cover photo in Marie Claire. Rankin has shot for Germany's Next Topmodel, where he was a guest judge, and regularly works with the winner of Cycle 2 of Britains Next Top Model Lianna Fowler.

In 2011 Rankin served as the photography teacher in the Channel 4 series Jamie's Dream School featuring Jamie Oliver. He also presented the BBC Four documentary America in Pictures - The Story of Life Magazine. In May 2012 it was confirmed that Rankin would be re-shooting Azealia Banks's music video for her single "Liquorice". In late December 2012 Cheryl Cole revealed she had worked with Rankin on the music video for her single Ghetto Baby, the video was revealed on 26 December 2012.