Britain through a Lens
Updated on 31 July 2009
Felicity Spector checks out her portrait in celebrated photographer Rankin's latest exhibition, which aims to capture the image of Britain.
His subjects range from the Queen to Kate Moss, from the world's top celebrities to his own family.
Now the renowned photographer Rankin is putting on his most ambitious project to date with two vast exhibitions in one.
The Rankin Retrospective, which opens at the Truman Brewery in London’s east end on 31 July, is the biggest ever display of his 23-year career, with more than 600 images on show.
Alongside it, though, is something entirely new - the photographer's studio as interactive exhibit itself. Since February, Rankin has set out to create a portrait of contemporary Britain, taking pictures of a thousand ordinary people across the country selected for, so the publicity goes, "their distinct sense of style, vibrant personalities or individual life stories".
Here I must declare an interest as I was one of the first lucky few to be photographed when the project first started.
It was in many ways a life-changing experience: empowering, exhilarating, even liberating. While it took much of the mystery out of celebrity fashion shots, it was also an incredible experience to be photographed by a man who managed to capture the essence of my personality in minutes, as well as making me look better than I had ever imagined possible.
And since this is possibly the only time I will find myself in the same sentence as Kate Moss, here‘s what the international supermodel has to say about her experience: "Any time Rankin takes a picture he knows what he wants, and there is really no chance of being anyone but who you are, even if you try. You can trust him. I trust him."
A whole room of the Truman Brewery space has been set aside for the ongoing shoot. 250 portraits, mine included, have been taken so far - forming a collage of photographs on the first wall. Behind it, three blank walls await the rest of the "models".
Ian
had flown down from Glasgow just for the shoot with Rankin
For 15 days of the exhibition, which runs until mid-September, Rankin will take photographs in a special studio set up inside the gallery so that members of the public can watch him at work. His subjects will go through hair, makeup and portrait inside 15 minutes. It took them almost two and a half hours to get mine done, but then they probably had their work cut out.
Once finished, the pictures will be hung immediately, creating an instant archive of their own. Rankin says he wants to show that "anyone can be beautiful if they trust themselves to be".
At the press preview day, a shy young Scottish man called Ian was being photographed: Rankin crouching beneath him, focussing his lights, snapping off shots until he was happy.
Ian had flown down from Glasgow just for the shoot. Afterwards, still looking a bit shell shocked, he declared it had been well worth the air fare for "an experience of a lifetime". "This sort of thing," he said "doesn’t normally happen to people like me."
This is all about removing the mystique: the photos of ordinary Britons are, after all, in the same exhibition as giant, iconic pictures of the likes of Claudia Schiffer, Madonna and Heidi Klum, as well as a few I probably wouldn’t show my elderly parents.
It reveals Rankin as a man who clearly doesn’t take himself too seriously. A room called "Me, me, me" features some raw, often hilarious self portraits. There’s a lovely display of affectionate photographs of his son Lyle, now 13. And a series of tongue in cheek videos entitled "How to Shoot Like Rankin" where various celebrities muck about in front of the camera, describing exactly how to achieve that famous Rankin pose.
The exhibition is unprecedented even for Rankin himself: "Never before have I faced my own body of work on such a scale," he says. "There's nowhere to hide. However, for me this is one of the most exciting stages in my journey as a photographer."
See it this summer - and join the excitement.
The exhibition Rankin Live shows at the Old Truman Brewery in London’s Brick Lane from 31 July to 18 September. All profits will go to Oxfam.
Rankin
with his photograph of Kate Moss
