Wednesday 4 November 2009

Rankin



Rankin is one of my favourite photographers as his images are so innovative and a lot of his work directly benefits charitable causes. I have been lucky enough to have taken part in one of his recent, ambitious projects called Rankin Live. This involved inviting 1000 of the British public, who had a distinctive style, sense of British eccentricity, and enthusiasm. To apply, you had to send in a photograph of yourself and the lucky participants were invited to the Rankin exhibition at London's Truman Brewery in August to sit for their personal shoot. The portraits produced on the day were hung as part of his exhibition, showcasing his work from the past 22 years and they were also uploaded online to the Rankin Live website:


http://www.rankinlive.com/#/live_shoot/196/s/Frances


His most recent project involves a series of striking images of close-ups of women’s faces with heavy makeup. At first glance the images appear to be advertising the latest in edgy style from the more extreme reaches of high-end fashion however they are actually intended to highlight the millions of women around the world who have gone blind. His purpose is to make more people aware that two-thirds of blind people are women, 90% of whom live in developing countries. I think these images are very effective as they look very fashionable rather than a disturbing one, which we would discard and not look twice at.



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