Rankin is one of the world's most iconic photographers, along with being a director, and cultural provocateur. He is best known for his celebrity portraits including Bowie, Madonna, Kate Moss, The Rolling Stones, and her majesty the Queen.

He co-founded the seminal magazine Dazed & Confused with Jefferson Hack in 1992 and has published over 40 books of his work. In 2013 Rankin created a thought-provoking exhibition called 'Alive in the Face of Death' creating portraits of people facing a terminal illness which became part of a BBC documentary. We discussed how working on this project confronted Rankin's fear of death, whilst still dealing with his grief after the death of both his parents a few years before. We talked about having those important conversations with those we love and his process for capturing people's authenticity on camera and creating iconic images that will be remembered long after his death.

In this episode we discuss:

• Creating an Iconic image

• How Rankin captures the truth in a person

• Death as a way to celebrate someone’s life

• Ageism and how we live in a youth-orientated society

• The cost of dying

• Not taking life for granted

• Rankins parent's death and how he dealt with these events

• How Rankin confronted death through ‘The Alive in the Face of Death’ Exhibition

• Having those important conversations about advance care planning, funerals and what we want in the end

• Success and what that means

• Learning from our mistakes

Please note that this episode may contain some swearing.

Episode references

Author Diana Athill

Books:

Black Box Thinking, The Surprising Truth About Success by Matthew Syed

Do Death: For a Life Better Lived by Amanda Blainey. There’s a 10% discount if you order on the Do Book website using the code DEATH10 https://thedobook.co/products/do-death-for-a-life-better-lived

Advance life Planning - https://compassionindying.org.uk/