Rankin Quotes

“Photography to me is an addiction. I get jittery after a couple of days without a camera. Everyone who knows me says I'm happiest when I'm shooting.”

— Rankin

“There's a time when people say your work is revolutionary, but you have to keep being revolutionary. I can't keep shooting pop stars all my life. You have to keep changing, keep pushing yourself, looking for the new, the unusual.”

— Rankin

When you look at pornography, the women become objects, whereas what I'm trying to do is make the person in the photograph as important as their body. And obviously, I like tits and arse, because I just do. I like the sex of taking photographs.

— Rankin

“My dad would often take me to the cinema and I found myself really seduced by the imagery, I think this had a massive impact on how I viewed the world.”

— Rankin

At the end of the day, photography is ninety-nine percent business, connections, and politics and one percent creativity.

— Rankin

When I worked on an erotic shoot ... I shot digitally. It helped the models get into it because they could come over and see what was happening. It was the closest to being sexual, because it was a participatory experience.

— Rankin

“At the end of the day, it's only a photograph and if someone is going to get really upset about a photograph, then they have a lot of issues. I just roll with it and see what happens.”

— Rankin

“I remember driving around with my parents when I was little and looking out of the window and being very aware that it was the shape of a film screen when you went to the cinema. This was how I first saw the world, framed through a car window.”

— Rankin

“I always used to say to my ex-girlfriends that I could never take a good photograph of them, because there was too much of an intimacy between us, but actually the real thing is, if there's a proper intimacy between you ... I find it really compelling and exciting - it's quite good foreplay.”

— Rankin

I think if you don't love people and aren't fascinated by them, you'll never succeed as a portrait photographer, because your pictures will look cold.

— Rankin

“My Dad taught me that the English upper class are sent to school to be taught to be confident, whereas in Glasgow you're born confident. I've always thought that pretty much summed me up. Born confident.”

— Rankin

“You have to believe in what you're doing otherwise what's the point?”

— Rankin

“It's important to be honest enough about your work, and the areas in which you can improve. I'm still learning every day and I'm still Hungry to create more and better work, hence the name.”

— Rankin

“If you surround yourself with talented people and you give them the freedom to achieve, then the work will never fail.”

— Rankin

“I think the relationship between print and film is symbiotic, it's more about evolving and complimenting your existing content. The two are very much interconnected.”

— Rankin