22 October 2009
RANKIN’S FAULTY CAMERA EQUIPMENT TAKES PERFECT PICTURE OF THE QUEEN
CUIDE RI CATHY – RANKIN
Monday 26 October, 10pm, BBC ALBA
Famous Scottish photographer Rankin moves out from behind the camera as he spends the day with Cathy MacDonald, chatting through his career so far and revealing that it needed his camera equipment to fall apart before he could capture the perfect picture of The Queen.
In the latest programme of the Cuide ri Cathy on BBC ALBA, Cathy MacDonald spends a day with John Rankin Waddell in London, relaxing with his family before taking a tour of his new studio plus his latest exhibition ‘Rankin Live!’ at London's Truman Brewery.
Rankin spends time with Cathy MacDonald at an exhibition of his work
The Paisley-born photographer meets Cathy whilst walking his dogs at Hampstead Heath with his new wife Tuuli and son Lyle. Rankin explains to Cathy that he has little interest in participating in the celebrity party scene and enjoys the more mundane tasks of everyday life, such as doing the dishes and taking the dogs for a walk, although his son immediately quips, “that’s a bit of a cliché what you’re saying!”
It’s one of Rankin’s previous shoots that gives him much pleasure, the occasion that he photographed The Queen. Rankin was delighted with the final pictures, not least because of the effort that he had put in to get Her Majesty to smile. He says: “I kept saying please smile Mam, please smile Mam. But she wouldn’t and I just kept asking and asking and then something fell off the top of my camera and she actually laughed, so I managed to get the smile!”
Shortly before meeting Cathy, Rankin had completed an early morning appointment – photographing Prime Minister Gordon Brown at Downing Street. It is not the first Prime Minister he had photographed but as Rankin explains, it was still an assignment he was looking forward to. Rankin says: “I’ve wanted to photograph him for years as I’m a big fan of him and he’s Scottish. He is incredibly charming, good fun and really positive. It was very different from my meeting with Blair. I’ve never really met a politician, apart from Gorbachev, who didn’t have dead eyes, glazed over eyes. What I was hoping for was that he wouldn’t be like that and he wasn’t, he was more like Gorbachev, more of a character, more inquisitive and exciting to me. It was a real milestone in my career.”
Cathy later goes on a tour of Rankin’s new studio in north London which will also double up as his new home when completed. Gaining an insight into the work that goes on behind the scenes, Rankin explains the simple thing he looks for in each shot. He says: “Obviously the camera and lighting can enhance people but I zone in on their personality and try to get that into the image. I don’t know if I make them look better than they are, I just make them look like they’ve been photographed.”
During a visit to an exhibition showcasing images from the start of Rankin’s career to the present day, Cathy asks the photographer about his aims for the future. Whilst Rankin says that he does not chase people for the chance to have a photoshoot with them, he would love the opportunity to photograph Nelson Mandela, the Dali Lama or Sean Penn.
CUIDE RI CATHY will be broadcast on BBC ALBA on Monday 26 October at 22.00 and is available on Sky channel 168, Freesat channel 110 and live on BBC iplayer.