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A-list photographer Rankin
talks to Sarah Klugman about career development
 Let's face it. All of us like
to think we've got a bit of talent when we've got a camera in
our hands. Whether you're a member of your local photographic
club or forcing your holiday snaps on your long-suffering work
colleagues.
"Everyone's a fucking
photographer. Your Mum's a photographer, your Aunt's a
photographer, even your Grandmother's a photographer,"
says Rankin, co-founder of the British style magazine Dazed
and Confused. "It isn't hard to take good photographs,
but to take exceptional photographs is something
different."
Yes, he swears a lot and yes,
I'll let him get away with this, for Rankin, born Rankin
Waddell, is one of Britain's leading photographers. Some have
even dubbed him the new David Bailey, which accounts for his
occasional arrogance. He is the man that every A-List
celebrity wants to be photographed by, even Madonna asked for
him by name to shoot the images for the cover of her Ray of
Light album as well as a front cover for Q magazine. He has
photographed anyone and everyone, but still maintains that he
is as normal as the rest of us. "I do not place myself in
a bizarre parallel universe. I have a very down to earth
approach to what I do. I don't ever say that I am a
photographer from Vogue; I would be happy to take anyone's
photograph."
Born in Glasgow in 1966, Rankin
spent his first twenty years with an average upbringing, which
included moving to St Albans in 1980 and ending up in Brighton
in 1986 to study accountancy at the then Brighton Polytechnic.
"I was never keen on doing the accountancy really. I was
keen on it for a term and then I was like, 'This is a fucking
joke'. So how did he shift career paths so dramatically?
"I was in halls of residence with a load of art and
photography students. There's something that kind of
kickstarts you, not integrity, but a kind of belief in
yourself." Up until that point he had never dreamed of
being a photographer let alone even picked up a camera.
"I'd been fascinated by photography and being in halls
made me think that their lives were so much more fulfilling
than mine. I thought, 'God, I don't just want to be trying to
balance accounts for the rest of my life'."
Fifteen years later, the man is
back in town and he's bringing an exhibition: CeleBritation
with him. The show consists of a selection of photographs that
aim to unravel the myth of celebrity and opens at the Brighton
Media Centre Gallery on May 10. The shots cover a whole range
of American and British celebrity figures from Madonna, the
Spice Girls, when there were five, Damien Hirst and Robbie
Williams, to Richard E Grant all spruced up in a blond wig.
The show has been on the road for over a year since it first
opened in London, travelling as far a field as his birth town,
but it is more than just a collection of the over-photographed
famous and infamous.
"I photograph from the pit
of my stomach. I'm trying to touch something in me and because
of that I feel that the photographs are genuine; that I'm
doing this for a reason," says Rankin in defence of the
subject matter. CeleBritation shouldn't be taken at pure face
value, none of the images have been taken especially for the
exhibition, rather Rankin has assembled a collection of work
that has been taken over the past ten years. "Looking
back, I realised there was a lot of work that was really
strange, that didn't fit into what the media generally goes
for. I wanted to do an exhibition that was a real eye opener,
that started to pull down the layers of what celebrity
means."
Rankin feels that the
difference between these images to those of celebrities you
see every day in the national press, is their representation.
Talking to him you get the feeling that this has been said a
hundred times before and I am not sure whether he's talked
himself into the idea that they uncover anything, or whether
he genuinely believes it. Regardless, none of the photographs
are overly stylised or use unnecessary props or exotic
locations, and they do manage to reveal something of the
character of each celebrity, often surprisingly. Many people
say that Rankin is technically a fantastic photographer, but
they also say that his success has been more a case of being
in the right place at the right time. This said, they are
still a unique collection of who's who in the world of music
and cinema and they do reflect a real sense of fun.
"I'm not trying to use
anything to try and create a meaning, I'm just looking for
them to give me something that means something to me. They're
more honest images than ones that you see in most magazines.
Occasionally you get off-guard moments from the paparazzi, but
even then, people don't really show anything of themselves. In
these portraits people show a lot of their personality, a lot
of what I would refer to as their souls; their real
characters."
This may well be true, but you
can't help suspecting that there must be an element of
bullshit attached to all of this. After all, nobody gets poor
taking Madonna's photograph and to be honest, how challenging
can it be to get a good picture when you've got The Material
Girl standing right there in front of you. "Whether I
like it or not, my photographs have got something different
about them. I know it is very easy to take a swipe at the
exhibition because anyone can say: 'well you just had to be
there didn't you. You just had to have ten minutes with that
celebrity and you'd have got that image… anyone could have
got that image.' There's so many people that want to be
photographers or think they've reached a level where they look
at my photography and think it's easy."
For all of the confidence
Rankin is also very much after approval. After all, what's the
point of taking photographs that nobody wants to look at? So
despite taking most of the cover shots for Dazed and Confused,
and having shot advertisements for Givenchy, British Airways
Concorde and Diesel StyleLab, as well as editorial pictures
for magazines including Q and The Big Issue, and had a number
of different exhibitions including a collection of male nudes,
Rankin, just like the rest of us, needs a little recognition
for what he does. "You do things because you want
feedback from them," he replies, "and the worse
thing is getting no feedback, because you do the work so that
you can hear what people have to say." The subject matter
can't do his social standing any harm either, but he's quick
to point out that this is not his raison d'ętre: "You
know, the minute you want to photograph someone because you
want to be famous, you're fucked. I've never wanted to do
that, I'm not a starfucker and I'll never be a starfucker."
So this must be more a case of demand as opposed to supply,
because we have become a nation obsessed with celebrity in all
of its forms. Everyone wants to be a star; from the
non-legendary Britney Spears-singing Darius to Big Brother's
Nasty Nick, but you won't see any B-List characters in the
exhibition. "The people who are in CeleBritation are
people that I think are interesting and have got something to
offer, there are no people in there who I don't think are
genuine."
Looking through the
CeleBritation book, you can understand where he is coming
from. The exhibition aims to question the creation of the icon
and to a certain extent it begins to do just that, but whether
this can be seen to be wholeheartedly genuine is another
matter. These are not pictures of you or I; they are people
who earn more money in a month that any of us do in a year. So
how far you decide to take the whole cultural significance of
the exhibition is up to you. Rankin admits that the great
British public are becoming as fame struck as our fellow
Americans, but I'd like to think that we are a bit smarter
than that and I think Rankin does too. "The National
Enquirer isn't really that different from The Sun. People are
totally buying into the concept of celebrity, but, you know, I
think people in Britain have got a little more sense than
that, but you never know."
CeleBritation, sponsored by
Budweiser as part of the Budweiser B programme, is at Brighton
Media Centre Gallery, 9-12 Middle Street, Brighton, from May
10 to May 27. Tel: 01273 384200.
CeleBritation can be bought at
25 per cent off the usual retail price from
visiononpublishing.com
copyright New Insight 2000
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