Customer Reviews

The Nude Photography of Rankin : Models Wanted Any Age, Any Size

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The charm of this book is that it features "real people" - not simply supermodels. Photos and the arranged shots were the ideas of the photographer (Rankin), and also the subjects' own.

Some of the "models" are in "artsy" roles and things - bathed in jelly, smeared with ketchup, etc. Nonetheless, all shots are witty, sensual, and provocative. A must have for the Nude library.

This is one of the best art books I have seen for ages. I love the idea behind the book and I wish I could have been involved in this project- that's how good the photos are!

The request went out for "Models Wanted - Any Age, Any Size" and the respondents that were used got to work with renown fashion photographer Rankin. This book is the result of these sessions. Rankin approached the project as a collaboration between himself and each of the women "who agreed to stand naked in front of his camera". It includes some individuals well known in fashion and entertainment but for the most part it glorifies the 'normal person'. Each was given almost full control on how they would be photographed. The results are simply stunning and represent a motley collection of personal portraits ranging from witty escapades to exercises in sensual adventure. They bathe in jelly, twirl fire sticks, wrap themselves up in Christmas lights, smear ketchup, etc. But most of them just relax before Rankin, letting him gather their essence in a single moment of naked honesty.

There is nothing original in the concept behind this book--photographing supposedly ordinary people in the nude has been done many times before by better photographers. Contrary to the the complaint of another reviewer that some of the models are too ordinary, ordinariness is the point. If there is anything to complain about the models it is that too many of them are young, slim, white women. No, the problem here is that the models are poorly posed in silly locations--this photographer seems to think that best thing to do with ordinary people is to pose them as Helmut Newton would. I know the work of Helmut Newton and Rankin is no Helmut Newton. This book is an insult to the models who posed for it--they deserve better. (By the way, when will photographers, designers, and publishers ever learn that printing an image over two pages with a cavernous gutter in the middle destroys the image--it's a waste of paper.)

After reading some of the other reviews of this book, I have to wonder if they were looking at the same book! I found this volume hugely disappointing, so much so that I returened it the very next day for a refund. There are models that are so fat that you can't find their belly-buttons, models with bruises on thier legs, all lit to look like medical specimens. If that's your cup of tea, then this book is for you. To me it looked like a collection of the photographs that would normally be edited from a book of this sort.