"Use your platform for good. Don't worry about your platform, be concerned with your impact." Very few people find success without a helping hand or barrels of luck. As one of photography's stars, Rankin is using his influence to help out young and emerging photographers through the Visual Noise art fair at Maryland Studios and online catalog through Public Offerings Ltd.
Visual Noise is an art fair designed to celebrate talented photographers whose graduating shows were disrupted due to COVID-19.
Ryan Blackwell @ Visual Noise
By lending his name and installations services to Visual Noise, Rankin's participation will draw eyes from around the world. As an advocate for new talent, Rankin is helping to elevate the graduating shows from missed to golden opportunities.
Noor Dhanju @ Visual Noise
Rankin's first big break is an often retold but great story. As Rankin puts it:
Like everyone in this industry, I had to get my start somewhere.
While creating and working with the Dazed & Confused team, Rankin received a call from Björk’s label, asking him to do a shoot. Apparently, Björk had come across his magazine and connected with the aesthetic. For Rankin, it was his first celebrity commission, and it brought more attention to his work and magazine than he could have ever dreamed.
Colette Slater Barrass @ Visual Noise
Together with his curator Ellen Stone, of Public Offerings Ltd., Rankin decided that he could provide a leg up for students who were caught in the COVID-19 pandemic.
Visual Noise is giving me a chance to extend a hand to the next generation, just as Björk did for me!
Although the show is on in London at Maryland Studio, Public Offerings Ltd. will be putting out a digital catalog for viewers around the world to see.
As an added bonus, the fair will be hosting a Legacy of War print and t-shirt sale, with all profits from their sales going to their partner organizations in Ukraine.
All images used with permission of the credited photographers. Lead image from Collette Slater Barrass.
