Portraits
Rankin:
John Rankin Waddell (born 1966), also known under his working name Rankin, is a British portrait and fashion photographer. He was born in Paisley and brought up in St Albans in 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. Through publishing magazines including more as well as Dazed & Confused, his work became very prominent and his photography career took off. Today, he provides professional photos for many famous companies like Vogue and even shoots for films posters such as Spectre.
His work mainly consists of portraits of which a large portion are black and white. The combination of powerful poses close up to the models and the limited colour in the photographs below create the striking images he is best known for. Rankin's work has been very influential in my work as I have tried to replicate his style of capturing strong emotion and enhanced it by making some images in monochrome.
John Rankin Waddell (born 1966), also known under his working name Rankin, is a British portrait and fashion photographer. He was born in Paisley and brought up in St Albans in 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. Through publishing magazines including more as well as Dazed & Confused, his work became very prominent and his photography career took off. Today, he provides professional photos for many famous companies like Vogue and even shoots for films posters such as Spectre.
His work mainly consists of portraits of which a large portion are black and white. The combination of powerful poses close up to the models and the limited colour in the photographs below create the striking images he is best known for. Rankin's work has been very influential in my work as I have tried to replicate his style of capturing strong emotion and enhanced it by making some images in monochrome.
Work of Other Photographers
These portraits from other photographers have also been quite influential in creating my images. Being close up to the model like in images below helps to capture the emotion of a person's face while they're posing. It also helps to see the face more clearly and when the photos are taken with a high quality camera, this effect is enhanced. The pose and face the model is pulling is a key part of taking a portrait because it sets an overall mood and tone. This can be added to through Photoshop and choice of lighting and colour. A photo with a positive tone can be made colourful and use bright lights for added effect. A more serious mood in a photograph can be made by using black and white and lower levels of light. Examples exploring both can be seen below.
My Work
In my photos, I have explored a wide variety of angles and uses of light. I have used limited light for effect in some and a lot of light using lamps in others. Using both close up and more distanced photos has also worked well and can create different interpretations of one single person in an image as well as different levels of colour.
Unedited
Edited
This photograph was taken under a flyover in Liverpool City Centre. I think it is particularly impressive due to the depth of field created through the difference of distance between the model and the long corridor. The streetlight shining onto the pillar adds extra focus onto the model as well as the slight blur I added onto the open space on the right.