In depth analysis of Rankin

In depth analysis of Rankin 

This photograph was taken by Rankin. Rankin was born in 1966 in Hertfordshire, he studied at the university of Falmouth but dropped out to study at the London college of printing.

He is a portrait and fashion photographer, he has worked with many celebrities such as; Kate Moss, Madonna, Lily Allen, The Rolling Stones and many more.

This photograph is of a woman with heavy Zebra print make-up coving what we can see of her. A piece of white card with a rectangular shaped hole cut out of it, that the model appears to be trying to get out of. At first glance you see the make-up, the painted nails and the abstractness of this photograph and assume modern fashion portrait. After looking at the photograph for a while, possible hidden meanings become more apparent. The fact that she is painted as a Zebra suggests animals, she is behind a pice of card, this could be symbolic of a cage at a zoo and the fact that she appears to be attempting escape, possibly points to animal cruelty?

The model is the only thing in this photograph and she is centred in the frame. Also the make-up she is wearing adds a layer to her face this creates texture to the image as well as adding a layer to hide/obscure her face on top of the card that makes us only see part of her face and hands.

I like this photograph because although we can't see the whole of the model, we find out more from what we can't see, for example she is hidden through her makeup and the piece of card this makes us as an audience wonder and begin to imagine whats behind it all. I also like the contrasting colours (black and white) and the fact her blue eye stands out so much from the rest of the photograph.

I found this photograph on Rankins website; http://rankin.co.uk/home/ 

From looking at this image I can tell that it was very much planned and posed for. 

The materials used; make-up, cut out on card and lighting shows that the photograph does have a reason and meaning behind it.

When I first looked at this photograph I liked it because of the boldness of it. It also inspired me to make one of my initial ideas as 'obscuring the face'.

Key words that I would immediately relate to this photograph: Bold, fashion, portraits, pattern, hidden, secretive and mysterious. 

This photograph relates to my theme of portraiture but it also crosses over into the theme of fashion portraiture, which I would like to explore further.