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I was there
Rankin on photographing Kate Moss in 2011
Eight years ago this month I took this photograph of Kate Moss for the October 2011 issue of Dazed & Confused – it was for one of the 20 covers celebrating the magazine’s 20th anniversary. Jefferson Hack, a college friend, and I launched Dazed in 1991 and Kate was one of our first cover stars. She was pretty generous to get involved with us at the time, given that we were only just starting out.
We first met Kate in the early 1990s and we all became great friends. She and Jefferson started darting and stayed together for a few years, and now have a 17-year-old daughter together, Lila Grace Mosshack. Since that time, I’ve collaborated with Kate a lot. So, for the 20th-anniversary issue, when we shot all of our favourite cover stars, she was always going to be one of them. Not only is she easy to photograph, but she’s fun to be around. You always end up having a good laugh with her. Her sense of humour is wicked.
We listened to a lot of the Rolling Stones on set that day, which has become a bit of a tradition of ours whenever we work together. Mostly You Can’t Always Get What You Want and Gimme Shelter.
I directed Kate to strike a pose that would allow me to focus on her eyes, as I’ve always loved them. They’re such a central part of this photograph.
The photo shoot took place in my studio in Kentish Town, in London, so it felt very homely. Afterwards, we interviewed Kate and asked her what had been different about posing for the magazine 20 years on. She recalled how, last time, we’d graffitied her from head to toe. ‘At least today I didn’t have to be spray-painted,’ she joked.
The shoot was styled by Cathy Edwards, Dazed ’s brilliant, unsung fashion editor, who, unfortunately, we lost in 2015 to cancer. She was one of the people who was always so encouraging to me. I remember her making a comment about what a long way I’d come, and that’s a very special memory for me.
It felt like we’d achieved something massive that day, by getting to 20 years. Dazed
& Confused was born during a recession, which meant Jefferson and I were forced to make work for ourselves. Luckily, we were in the right place at the right time with the right attitude.
Our first print run was 5,000, which meant we were basically giving the magazine away – and there we were, two decades on, photographing the greatest supermodel of all time for a huge anniversary. Cathy was right, we’d come a very long way indeed. — Interview by Izzy Lyons Rankin: From Portraiture to Fashion is a celebratory exhibition of Rankin’s art, portraits and work in fashion. It will run until 24 February 2020 at 29 Arts in Progress, 13 Via San Vittore, 20123 Milan, Italy. Visit 29artsinprogress.com