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InspirationPhotography

Less is More: Celebrating Rankin's career spent challenging the status quo

The endlessly fascinating work of British portrait and fashion photographer Rankin – otherwise known as John Rankin Waddell – is being exhibited together at the Kunsthalle Rostock in Germany.

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All images courtesy of Rankin.

All images courtesy of Rankin.

Entitled Less is More, the exclusive show features early imagery from his time as a co-founder of Dazed & Confused all the way through to his more experimental contemporary work, celebrating a career spent challenging the status quo.

While fascinated by the fragility of life, and the inevitable onward march of death, there is all the signature tongue-in-cheek humour and emotive quality that the world has come to expect. For Rankin, Less is More is about coming full circle. It moves away from his photographs of celebrity and casts its gaze back to the work he originally started at Dazed. Here he explored combining conceptual art and fashion photography, forcing them to create a third, more accessible image. It is an approach that flows throughout the unique exhibition.

Rankin has always seen photography as a way to stimulate conversation, something accessible for everybody to understand and love. He rejects pretension with straight up, humour driven concepts that poke fun at fashion and advertising, whilst working within the mediums.

"I really believe in photography that makes you think as well as feel something," Rankin explained. "Less is More is the first time I've brought my more conceptual work together. It does what it says on the tin: showing fewer pieces that have more meaning to me."

The exhibition is a moment of reflection, a carefully curated collection of work that gives you the time and space to absorb the ideas and craft. It's all about human emotion and evoking a gut reaction.

Rankin continued: "We now live in a world populated by billions of wannabe photographers and have come to interact with photography through screens. Society and social media have shifted the medium away from how we explore the world to how we showcase ourselves. We live in an age of ‘brand me’ and smartphones have become the tool to do this... upload, download, overload. I want to put people face-to-face with photography, to stop them in their tracks, to get them thinking about work that is not necessarily entirely serious but is more than just the slip of a finger on a phone.”

Less Is More will run until 28th February 2016. To find out more, visit www.rankin.co.uk or www.kunsthallerostock.de.

Mannequin head wearing dark aviator sunglasses with liquid dripping down the face against a grey background
Person's face obscured by a crystalline geometric mask made of reflective silver and iridescent faceted shapes, with dark hair visible above against a black background
Black and white portrait of a person wearing oversized sunglasses, pearl necklaces and metallic gloves, posed with mouth open against a dark background
Person wearing pig mask and bright pink leggings crouches in a rustic barn setting, demonstrating Rankin's conceptual approach to challenging fashion and advertising conventions
Portrait of a person's face with pale skin, closed eyes featuring bold red-pink eyeshadow, black eyeliner, and red lips, with a small dotted teardrop design on the cheek
Figure with white blonde bob hair and red lips wearing a graphic print top with flames, against a textured grey background
Person with white hair in blue shirt jumping in front of dilapidated building with two dark doorways
Group of seven female mannequins with varying skin tones and facial features arranged closely together against a white background
Four colourful pop art-style portraits with blonde curled hair and bold eyeshadow in pink, blue, yellow and pink backgrounds
Surreal portrait with exaggerated features: wide-eyed expression with thick black lashes, magenta lips pulled back to reveal teeth, and a large pink nose against a bright blue background
Absurdist portrait with googly eyes, white eyebrows and false moustache, eating a colourful burger against a pink background, from Rankin's Less is More exhibition
Surreal portrait by Rankin featuring a person's face with champagne glasses replacing their eyes and a green decorative element, wearing sunglasses pushed up on their head
Model wearing a red wool coat with brown fur trim at the hem, holding a geometric patchwork handbag and wearing matching fur boots
Black and white portrait of a figure with hands on head, face obscured by vertical glitch effect lines, arms outstretched horizontally against white background
Colourful sugar-coated balls arranged in a heart shape on a white cone against a beige background
A blonde woman crouches inside a clear glass or acrylic rectangular box surrounded by grass and trees in a garden setting
Stylised mannequin head with voluminous curly copper-red hair, dramatic yellow and black eyeshadow, and bold red lips against a soft pink background
Black and white portrait photograph of a man's face with eyes closed against a dark background, showing textured skin detail
Light blue underwear with white lace trim and a small bow, worn by a person, from Rankin's fashion photography series
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