I loved this exhibition, probably one of my favorites I have been to. It is on the photographer Rankin. He is believed to deliver "frozen magic" through his images and I would completely agree with this. Another amazing talent is that he does all types of photography show by how the gallery was sectioned, but his main focus is portrait. " I just wanted to photograph everybody, try out everything."
Rankin is inspired by W Eugene Smith and Don Mc Cullin, and it seems that he found art college a hard environment to be in "Everyone at art college tries to piss on your parade. And you do the same back to them. It's a really tough environment."
Some of his photography may surprise and make people turn away. However his thinking behind SNOG shown above was "Normally when people kiss in public, the reaction is to look away. I wanted to challenge this by creating a series of big prints of people snogging. I wanted to throw down the gautlet - dare the viewers not to avert their eyes, but instead get stuck right in."
One of the best things about this gallery is that you can get your picture taken by Rankin, or go into the photo both and get your photo done and pin it up on the wall. This is a fantastic way to involve the audience. The photo's draw you in and this makes you involved in the gallery itself.
I don't want to show you all of the gallery because it is defiantly worth going to see yourself. However I am going to touch on two more sections of it! The first one being the photos of his son Lyle. He waited until Lyle was old enough to have input himself. "you don't want to be the dad that your son hates." I love these photos because it shows his son with character.
Is work with Oxfam in the Congo is also incredibly impressive and worth looking at. 
The last bit I am going to feature on this blog is his work with Kate Moss. He has done many photographs with a number of celebrities but his shoots of Kate are Iconic. "Kate is quite aloof in front of the camera. It makes her more compelling."
Definitely go to this inspirational exhibition, and make sure you check out RANKIN LIVE.
This exhibition was held in the Kemistry Gallery in London. Since our typography project I have always been interesting in the art. The journal was founded by a 25 year old Herbert Spencer, who went on to become one of the most influential British communication designers and typographers. It has a really interesting bit on Spanish Street Letterings by Alan Bartram.
