Rankin And Richard Avedon Comparison

Rankin And Richard Avedon ComparisonRichard Avedon and John Rankin Waddell ( much commonly known as Rankin) view as many similarities in their charm and have excessively do many of the same things during their c arers this is non to say that there are no differences though. During this essay I am going to emphasize to compare and argument both the photographic work and the careers of 2 lensmans.To do this I have researched both photographers, I have researched their lives and careers and alike their images. I have looking fored at similarities and differences in the photographers work, in style, composition, elements and equipment. For my research I have utilise a mixture of books and the internet (using websites, online interviews, biographies and news articles) which are all jiffyary sources of information.A brief back upground of the chosen photographersAvedon was born in New York City, the States in 1923. In 1942 after a short cartridge clip at University Avedon dr opped out to join the U.S Merchant Marine to correction picture victorious, he remaining in 1944 and began working as a captain photographer in a department investment trust. Within a year Avedon had been spotted by an art director and was working as a staff photographer for Harpers bazaar magazine. This was the start of a precise restless and fulfilled picture taking career for Avedon which went on until his death in 2004 at the age of 81.Rankin was born in 1966 in Paisley, Scotland but was brought up in Hertfordshire, England. After being expelled from school Rankin tried studying Accountancy for a short while, realising this is not what he wanted to do he went on to study photography at London College of Printing. In 1991 he leftfield college to go on and form Dazed Confused magazine with his acquaintance Jefferson Hack. This was the beginning of Rankins career.FashionAvedon always had an absorb in Fashion and this was no surprise given that his Father owned a depart ment store in Manhattan and he regularly had magazines such(prenominal) as Harpers Bazaar, Vogue and narcissism Fair delivered to their family home. Reading through magazines such as these gave Avedon the desire to try to recreate these images which were taken by photographers such as Steichen, Man atomic number 75 and Munkasci. Avedon started producing his own photos by the use of a Kodak Box Brownie television camera and using his younger sister as a model.When Avedon became a professional forge photographer, fashion models were not public celebrities, their work had no prestige, and their label were not generally known (Avedon and Hollander 2005 p238)This is a big difference surrounded by Avedon and Rankin. When snapshot fashion it has always been common for Rankin to use famous models, this is not only due to choice but also due to a change in times. Fashion photography in the 1940s, when Avedon started out his photography career was different in many more ways than the fame or everydayity of the models. Avedon created a name for himself within the industry by injecting life and likeness into fashion photography that hadnt really been done before. His portraits contained smiles, laughter and action which alone went against the norm in photography for this period. This is something that obviously influenced Rankin and can nonoperational be seen in his work today. Images by both are usually very minimalist and clean looking.The number 1 image is by Avedon and was used by Vogue for the front cover and the second is by Rankin.PortraitsAvedon had always had an interest in portraiture and also a unique way of doing it. When taking portraits of multitude Avedon used to talk closely uncomfortable subjects and asked them very trenchant questions. This caused reactions that gave Avedon a raw view of hatful that wasnt very much caught by others. His style was very detectable from the subject posing in front of a plain innocence background and looki ng this instant into the camera. All the pictures were very minimalistic and almost clinical looking.In 1985 he held an battle array called American West the order consisted of 125 photos that he had taken surrounded by 1979 and 1984, he had photographed drifters, miners, cowboys and many other from the western United States. Avedon was attracted to working people and teenagers growing up in the west. This went on to be published as a book and even though it was criticised at the time from people saying it was giving a bad impression of America it is still seen today as a hugely important hallmark of twentieth Century portrait photography.Most of Rankins portraits are done with the same look of plain white background and the subject looking squarely into the camera. Rankin also has a way of bring something very personal to his portraits and has a accomplishment of really reflecting the models personality in the image but done in a different way to which Avedon did, usually by a pplying a nappy prop or pose.Examples of their portraits are below the first is by Avedon and the second by Rankin.DocumentaryAvedons portraits from the American West exhibition are of a objective style, the pictures are documenting the west of the United States the years of 1979 and 1981. Avedon was interested in memorialiseing the real people of this area and time, he chose to photograph workers such as oil field workers and miners in their dirty work gear. He also photographed unemployed travellers and teenagers that were growing up here.In 2008 Rankin, with Oxfam, did his own documentary photography exhibition entitled Cheka Kidogo. For this exhibition, travelling to the Democratic Republic of congou in June 2008, Rankin took photos of people that were now living in refugee camps due to fleeing contradict in area. The exhibition was to portray the reality and draw attention back to the forgotten conflict of the country. Rankin then donated all of the profits from his Rankin Live exhibition to Oxfam.Even though there arent many visual similarities between the two sets of photos, there is a big likeness in the reason behind(predicate) both and what the photographers wanted to show with them. The main reason for both exhibitions is to show the reality of living in a certain place and time and then the life that this then creates for people. Both tried to capture and show the lives of their subjects through the people in their portraits.EroticaBoth Avedon and Rankin have solidus an Erotica collection. Even though Rankins seems to be a lot more extensive, you can still the similarities and influences from Avedons work. In the pictures below you can see that the similarities are that of composition, deform, contrast and style. On the below image you can see that Rankin has also added his own style to the picture with the way he has lit the sweep and the addition of the snake. Avedons image is also very flat compared to Rankins image.The first is by Aved on, 1992, and the second by Rankin, 2007A large amount of Rankins recent work falls into the Erotica category. He has published a book that is preponderantly of this nature featuring Tuuli Shipster, who was previously his muse but is now his wife. The book is a collection of erotic images of her that he has entitled A Photographic esteem Letter. Rankin has also published other books that contain more of his erotic images, credibly his most famous one being called Cheeky, in 2002 he has released a book called Sofa Sexy which is slightly more adventurous and bald-faced than his other erotica work .ColourDue to the time a lot of Avedons photos are blackamoor and white but even as time went on and colour photography became much more in demand(predicate) and available, Avedon still shot much of his personal work in black and white. This doesnt mean that he never used colour though, quite the opposite, when shooting for fashion magazines during the 60s and 70s Avedon experimented a lo t with colour photography.Avedons long relationship with fashion magazine Harpers Bazaar allowed him to try out color as much as or more than any experimental photographer of the period. His pallet derived from trendy colors of the time, including hot pink, which helped spread the colours through the fit out and cosmetics industry.(Marien 2006 p354)Rankin does occasionally produce black and white pictures but as a whole most of his work tends to be in quite brainy colour.Both photographers produced a lot of portraits on white backgrounds.Even though one uses mainly colour photography and the other black and white both generally produce very high contrast, high divulge pictures.Rankin 7 photographs that changed fashionFor a BBC documentary Rankin tried to recreate what he thought were the 7 photographs that changed fashion. The photos were originally taken by photographers that had influenced and inspire him such as, Herb Ritts, Cecil Beaton, Guy Bourdin, David Bailey, Erwin Blumenfeld, Helmut Newton and Richard Avedon.During the program Rankins closing is to expose the ways in which fashion photography uses fantasy and beaut to communicate something about reality. (http//www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00gq75c)For one of the seven photographs Rankin recreated Avedons 1955 Dovima With Elephants for this he used model Erin OConnor. He said he chose her for her tall set up and demeanour this obviously matched that of model Dovima that Avedon had used for his image. Rankin produced the image in colour unlike Avedons original that was black and white. Even though Rankin produced a very good image I dont envisage he managed to capture the atmosphere that Avedon did in his image.During the BBC documentary Rankin said about Avedon, Classic styling with energy and creative spirit. Daring, stylish and ambitious, his pictures reflected the optimism of 50s America and turned him into the first celebrity fashion photographer. (BBC 2009 The seven Photographs That C hanged Fashion)Avedon 1955 Rankin 2008Books and MagazinesBoth photographers have produced many books of their photography and many of Avedons have been produced after his deathAvedon Nothing Personal. Photographs by Richard Avedon and text by James Baldwin 1964 An Autobiography The Photographs of Richard Avedon 1993 Evidence 1944-1994 1994 In the American West Richard Avedon Photographs 1979 1984 1996 The Sixties 1999 Richard Avedon Portraits 2002 Woman in the Mirror 1945-2004 2005 Richard Avedon Photographs 1946-2004 2007 Richard Avedon The Kennedys Portrait of a Family 2007 Performance 2008 Avedon Fashion 1944-2000 2009Rankin Snog 2000 Celebration 2000 Rankinworks 2000 Rankin Male Nudes 2001 Sofasexy turning a cheap sofa into an object of desire 2002 Breeding a study of sexual ambiguity 2004 Visually Hungry 2007 Beautyfull 2007 Tuulitastic A Photographic extol Letter 2007 Heidilicious 2009 Alex Box 2009 Cheeky 2009Both photographers were heavily invol ved in magazines during their careers and both predominantly about fashion, whether it be working for one or publishing their own. At the very beginning of his career Rankin, in 1991, with his hero Jefferson Hack started magazine Dazed and Confused this is still very popular and widely sold throughout the world. This was only the start for Rankin and he has asleep(p) on to produce magazines such as, RANK, other Magazine and Another Man. Avedon was Art Director for Harpers Bazaar at the beginning of his career and also worked for Vogue, Egoiste, The New Yorker and LIFE magazine.