[6][7][8][9][10][11] The London Evening Standard described Rankin's fashion and portrait photography style as "high-gloss, highly sexed and hyper-perfect".

[1] He worked as a hospital porter when he was 21,[19] and studied accounting at Brighton Polytechnic until he realised his interests lay elsewhere and dropped out.

[3][20] Rankin's portraiture includes: His portrait of "a drained-looking" Tony Blair, taken on the eve of the Iraq War for the cover of the Financial Times magazine, was seen as controversial.

[21][23][37] In 1991, Rankin and fellow London College of Printing student Jefferson Hack launched the magazine Dazed & Confused.

The show followed eight young women with disabilities who competed for a modelling contract; photo shoot with Rankin, and Marie Claire magazine cover picture.

[62] BBC Four broadcast his 2014 documentary Seven Photographs That Changed FashionI, in which he created tributes to images by Cecil Beaton, Erwin Blumenfeld, Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, David Bailey and Guy Bourdin.

[67][68] Rankin has exhibited at galleries including MoMA, New York, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Nike and Product Red commissioned him to shoot their 2012 HIV/AIDS campaign, Lace Up, Save Lives.

He is a supporter of Battersea Dogs & Cats Home, where his wife volunteers, and has donated a series of photographs to the charity.