Rankin
John Rankin Waddell (Rankin) is a British contemporary and fashion photographer. Born in Glasgow and raised in Hertfordshire, Rankin began studding to be an account at Brighton Polytechnic, before realising that his true interests did not involve accounting, his true ambition was to study photography. He took up photography at Barnfield College Luton which then progressed to study at London College of Printing. At this time, Rankin began to work with Jefferson Hack which led to them creating a magazine called Dazed & Confused. This was Rankin's entry to the work of photography and his career. In 1999 Rankin and Hack founded Dazed Film & TV, a production company that produced the first mast-head television broadcast, this is a four hour special Renegade TV Gets Dazed, for Channel 4.
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The project 'Destroy' is one which Rankin worked on with famous musicians and a children's music charity. The photographs taken were given back to the people involved so that they could 'destroy' the image. This involved cutting, painting, adding colour and editing in a way which expressed their own ideas and insight. It was a creative way to express emotion and their own creativity, or even to express their feelings towards a certain aspect of the photograph. Rankin's work became popular within the music industry; many artists desired to use his work.
These are two examples of the 'Destroy' project. The effects given to the photos (the colour) have been done to make the audience feel the artists own self expression. As both of the original images were black and white, it would have given the artist more of an opportunity to use colour to destroy their work. The red on these photos is very bold and adds a lot of contrast to the photograph as it stands out. The subjects have been placed central of the photograph to draw attention and make the person the focus of the photograph. Neither of the photos have been taken as relaxed or natural poses. Both have positioned themselves in a way in which they may have felt more comfortable, or already had an idea of how they wanted to destroy the photo, therefore posed this way. There is no shadow on the first photograph which would detract from any feature. This shows that the person is aiming to be the centre, and main focus of the photo.
These photos could be interpreted in different ways. One of which is that the red paint used could be symbolic of something negative as it is a dark colour often associated with blood, especially since the first one is dripping. The photos could have negative connotations to reflect something, such as an album, in the artists life. A different interpretation is that the artist was angry about a feature of the photograph. As seen in the second photo, the area around the artists hair is largely exaggerated, making the viewer think there is something wrong or, on the other hand, needs to stand out in the photo. I think this since, red is a bold, angry colour, and against the plain background, it stands out much more.
I think that the message these photos may be trying to convey is that, the artist need not be picture perfect nor the last photo outstanding quality in order for people to listen to them. Throughout this whole project, I think the artists would have been trying to communicate the message that, self expression is always good, even when trying to appeal to an audience.
These photos could be interpreted in different ways. One of which is that the red paint used could be symbolic of something negative as it is a dark colour often associated with blood, especially since the first one is dripping. The photos could have negative connotations to reflect something, such as an album, in the artists life. A different interpretation is that the artist was angry about a feature of the photograph. As seen in the second photo, the area around the artists hair is largely exaggerated, making the viewer think there is something wrong or, on the other hand, needs to stand out in the photo. I think this since, red is a bold, angry colour, and against the plain background, it stands out much more.
I think that the message these photos may be trying to convey is that, the artist need not be picture perfect nor the last photo outstanding quality in order for people to listen to them. Throughout this whole project, I think the artists would have been trying to communicate the message that, self expression is always good, even when trying to appeal to an audience.
Destroy
Here are my own practice pieces of Destroy inspired work. Using a photograph of myself and tools such as chalk, pencils, felt tips, scissors and paints, we were able to create different styles of work. In my first practice (left), I used coloured chalks to highlight the shadows as well as brighter aspects of the photograph. A yellow chalk was also used to outline the whole figure as well as features (nose, eyes...). I feel this worked well as it gave an interesting, glowing effect and also added a lot of colour to the photograph. However I am not too sure that the chalk works well on the face as it covers most features and looks quite messy. On the other hand, I like how the two different colours highlight the dark and light aspects of the photo.
The right hand picture's effect was created using scissors to cut up the photograph with no real order, which gives it a broken glass effect. the cut up pieces were then stuck onto black card, but purposely not joined correctly together. In this piece, what I feel went well was that, it is obvious the piece has been destroyed and the overall aesthetic is quite effective. The written text also gives another element, rather than it just being plain. An improvement could be that I add some colour, either with chalks or pens, as that too would give the piece an added element.
Next, another style would be to make a collage background using cut out news paper or magazines, and then placing the untouched photograph on the foreground. However, this could also work if the photograph had too been cut up (as seen previously). This, I feel, would be and effective style, as it could be used to draw all attention to key details in the background as well as the photograph.
The right hand picture's effect was created using scissors to cut up the photograph with no real order, which gives it a broken glass effect. the cut up pieces were then stuck onto black card, but purposely not joined correctly together. In this piece, what I feel went well was that, it is obvious the piece has been destroyed and the overall aesthetic is quite effective. The written text also gives another element, rather than it just being plain. An improvement could be that I add some colour, either with chalks or pens, as that too would give the piece an added element.
Next, another style would be to make a collage background using cut out news paper or magazines, and then placing the untouched photograph on the foreground. However, this could also work if the photograph had too been cut up (as seen previously). This, I feel, would be and effective style, as it could be used to draw all attention to key details in the background as well as the photograph.
. This time around, I wanted to crate a more colourful and interesting piece which included using more than one technique. I achieved this by using coloured card in a cut up - using scissors for a more naturalistic edge - jigsaw effect for a background. Although I like this background, I do not like the how not all of the edges are covered. The plain paper underneath is still visible in some areas. As well as this, it also appears a little messy because the card was cut to make the edges jagged. Even in the way they overlay each other, some pieces are neater than others.
The photo of myself was crafted in a similar way and stuck onto the background. I feel like this makes the image fit in with the background, while still standing out. Since the photo is in individual segments, each part stands out. The other technique I used was that of paints. Using watercolours and brush, I sprayed the same colours as the background onto the black and white image, |
For my final piece, I plan to employ a similar technique as my third destroy image. I am will be using the same image as before but instead changing the background colour of the card. As previously suggested, I plan to fit my image to a theme which is, as of now, undecided.
Final Piece
This is my final with the Destroy project. This time, instead of using scissors to cut up the image, I tore it up to give it a more messy effect. I feel this worked well with the collage background of magazine clippings, as they were also ripped up. Using clippings with different size font to stand out also worked well. To improve this, I would make sure that the whole of the background, or at least the parts showing behind the portrait, was covered by clippings. I could also use clippings which represent myself more, such as slogans or logos, as well as normal article trimmings. Or, rather than using trimmings which represent me, I could perhaps base it around a theme such as Autumn or films and try to incorporate my image into that. In addition, The actual image of myself does not stand out too well from the cut-outs detracting from the idea of Rankin's project.
Peer Evaluation
www: Ripping the pieces instead of cutting to give it more texture, and rearranging them in a unique way.
ebi: To cover the background behind your portrait so that the coloured paper is not showing.
Peer Evaluation
www: Ripping the pieces instead of cutting to give it more texture, and rearranging them in a unique way.
ebi: To cover the background behind your portrait so that the coloured paper is not showing.
linking the colours to the background and making it stand out all the more. A similar effect was seen within Kylie's own Rankin project wherein she splattered red paint across her own image. Many of the other artists also used this effect.
Unfortunately, as a final piece, I do not feel that this was as strong as some of my other work. My ideas could have been better executed with regards to the background and overall creativity of my techniques. If I were to do this project again, I would like to further the ideas of my second practice piece.
Unfortunately, as a final piece, I do not feel that this was as strong as some of my other work. My ideas could have been better executed with regards to the background and overall creativity of my techniques. If I were to do this project again, I would like to further the ideas of my second practice piece.
Destroy January
This piece of Destroy art was done at the start of the year. We were tasked with editing our images in a completely new style. For my piece, I decided to first used coloured crayons as a kind of graffiti, taking the idea of pop culture and photo shopping images, I edited my image to be 'beautiful. However I did this in a childlike way; messy and immature. Then for effect, scrawled the text 'make me a princess' in a similar style to emphasise the overall message of the image. I wanted to create a piece with slightly more meaning, an I feel I did this. A splattering of black paint for a final destroyed touch.
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