DESCRIPTION

For the first time ever in Germany, the retrospective exhibition at the NRW-Forum in Düsseldorf charted the key images from Rankin's life as a photographer. At once revealing, shocking, amusing, and seductive, the exhibition was an exhilarating journey through a diverse portfolio. Experiencing the glamour of his celebrity portraits, the sweat and sensuality of his erotic work, the mischievousness of his provocative self-portraits, the intimacy of his Tuuli series, the graphic and luminous style of his fashion and beauty shots, the strength and dignity of his Oxfam images, and his personal family photographs. Alongside his most influential and iconic images, lesser-known photographs from his more recent personal projects were also exhibited. It is through these, as much as through his most famous images, that we get a more intimate portrait of the artist himself. His motivations, his driving influences and his lifeblood. The retrospective exhibition offered an unprecedented opportunity to review a vast and varied oeuvre, following the evolution of a career that has always been in the vanguard of the profession. The exhibition ended with Rankin’s newest works, shot a few days before the opening. The exhibition at the NRW-Forum is sponsored by Breuninger, the Stuttgart-based fashion retailer.

 “Day in, day out, Rankin creates an incredible flood of pictures, clips, films, books, magazines … That he also photographed the Queen for her Golden Jubilee indicates that, nowadays, “wild man” Rankin might possibly be considered part of the Establishment” - Werner Lippert of the NRW-Forum discussing Rankin and his Show Off Exhibition in 2012.

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