Rankin; Destroy Project

Rankin's destroy project relates to the theme of 'Covert and Obscure' as he has allowed models to destroy photos (of themselves, taken by Rankin), allowing their faces to seem hidden in a strange way. I have noticed that in many of the photos for this project, the models have distorted or covered their faces with colours/shapes/patterns/text. 

 
Rankin sent musicians and visual artists photos that he took of them to destroy.
This project was done as a donation to Youth Music for the celebration for its 10th birthday. For this project Rankin used musicians and visual artists as models to take portrait photos of, to then send back to the participants to 'destroy' personally. This involved celebrities such as: Debbie Harry, Robyn, Florence Welch, Andre 3000, Kylie Minogue and many more.

This is one of the photos that Rankin took of a singer called Robyn for his 'destroy project'. It is a digital image focusing on the shoulders and above bringing the majority of our attention to the face due to the interesting facial expression. It seems as if a light directly above her head was used, highlighting every aspect of her body that is visible, aswell as creating a shadow below her chin and the sides of her face/head. I believe that the technique Robyn has used to destroy her portrait gives it her own personal statement which is what she could possibly be trying to express. This is because she has created the elusion that the colours of the foundation, lipstick and hair are being smudged off of her face. A message that she could be trying to portray is that she is a colourful person which reflects on her personality. This message relates to the amusing expression on her face. 


Personal Response:
I like the way that Robyn has destroyed this photo as it is clear that it is personal. I realised her intentions when I noticed that the 'smudges' of paint came off of her face. As well as giving it her own personal stamp by signing her name onto the bottom right of the portrait.   


This image (by Rankin) is one of my favourites as he has put together two portraits in a specific composition that doesn't allow us to see the face's as we would in real life, preventing us from seeing their faces as they are. 

 This photo relates to another photographers art; David Hockney, who creates an 'obscure and covert theme by cutting up pieces of an image and sticking them together again. The theme of his photography is well known as: 'Joiners'. An example of one of David Hockney's joiners:

I like the way that he has used two scales of the same portrait and placed each piece roughly in the right place.