Rankin Performance Exhibition
Before Christmas I went to see Rankin's new exhibition on 'Performance'. His work is a series of portraits which show various actors, directors and technical/support staff from London theatre groups. In these portraits you can see how Rankin has effectively captured the residence and vibrancy of this vital cultural assert.
At the time I saw this I didn't have any ideas of what I wanted to do for my FMP. Since I watched his documentary called 'Great British Photography Challenge'. Where Rankin searches for the best amateur photographer within the 5 contestants, each week setting them three different challenges. As I enjoyed watching this I heard about his exhibition of his work in Lockdown and wanted to see it in hopes it would spark off any ideas for my FMP.
Now I have decided to do my project on hands with the idea of having the portraits of people that include their hands, as the main subject of the image. I thought this exhibition would help me think of creative ideas on how I can pose my models, that would capture their personalities and showcase their hands in an effective way.
What I like about these portraits is instead of capturing them all in the same pose making them all identical, Rankin has chosen to make each models pose unique. This has helped to betray the character within the person to the viewer. Whilst they all look different due to their poses, he has photographed them all against a black backdrop with similar lighting, this setup has made them link together despite being posed differently.
I like this picture as Rankin has chosen to shoot this in Black and White. Using a harsh bright light this helps to highlight the models face and hands against the pitch black background, therefore making it more eye catching to the viewer. Since the model is looking straight at the camera, this makes the viewer feel as though he is looking straight at them.
This picture is interesting as its shot as a full portrait of the man, the only part of him you can see is his face and hands. Being dressed in black, it blends in well with the grey background behind, therefore making his face and parts of his hands more eye-catching to the viewer. Since he's looking off camera this adds intrigue to the image as it makes people question what he's looking at that they can't see.
I like the framing of this picture, as the blurred hands act like a leading line. Since she has them cupped together and near to the camera, this helps to draw the viewers attention instantly to the models face. Having her hands out of focus whereas her face is in focus and well lit this instantly makes her face more eye-catching to the viewer.
I love this picture as it shows the character that the model would play in the theatre. Wearing a dark blue jacket the blue helps to distinguish part of his figure against the dark grey background. This helps to show the viewer his outfit as well as some of the small finer details. Rankin has also framed the shot well as he has the model pitching the end of the hat, whilst the other fingers he has posed to form a curve shape which reflects the curve of the hat he's wearing. Framing it like this shows an effective way to have both the hands and face in the shot without either overshadowing each other.
Overall this exhibition has helped me develop my ideas for my FMP, which should help me move forward with my hands idea and research for this project.
