Last week Photography BA and MA enjoyed a visit from renowned photographer Rankin who talked to students about his career, from launching Dazed & Confused to his current projects.

Rankin’s visit was part of our TALKING PICTURES visiting speaker programme which is aimed at our Photography BA(Hons) and Photography MA students but, space permitting, is open to all.

Talking Pictures regularly collaborates with our partner Photoworks to bring in speakers, which we did this October during the Brighton Photo Biennial 2018, welcoming Donovan Wylie, Sarah Kember, Ben Burbridge and Annebella Pollen (among others).

The audience were taken on a journey from the early days of Rankin’s career, (starting during his accountancy degree at Brighton Polytechnic!) his creation of Dazed & Confused magazine and then through many projects. Rankin’s career is one that started in a time of analogue photography (he discussed making 5 x 4 polaroids in nightclubs in order to get an instantaneous shot for people) and then steadily moved into the digital era. He appears to approach each project with renewed energy and curiosity regardless of the brief, format or scope of the work. This is very revealing of the passion at the core of all his work, which for him is about people.

Rachel Gillies, Photography BA(Hons) course leader and the photographer behind these images said:

“Rankin spoke candidly of the process and the things he’s learnt along the way (often the hard way). What came across was that, underlying this energy to keep going, is a passion for  working with people, which fuels his motivation.

“For me, it’s always great to talk to people openly and honestly, which usually provides insights into them that are completely different to their media persona. This was no exception and I am very grateful to Rankin for providing these insights to our students and answering their and our questions.”

Rankin waived his speaker fee so that we could ask another voice along to our Visiting Speaker programme.