‘She was absolutely extraordinary. One of my favourite things, photographing her, was the power that came through the door’: Rankin on capturing Elizabeth II, embracing artificial intelligence and almost becoming an accountant

‘I can tell when something’s going on in someone’s life. It’s like I can smell it, if someone’s having a bad day,’ says the photographer John Rankin Waddell, better known as ‘Rankin’. I have come to his studio in London’s Kentish Town not only to interview him, but to have my photo taken by him, ahead of his upcoming event Rankin Live. It is the photographer’s intuition, honed over many years, that helps him the most in his job, he thinks. Having been the subject of his lens, I would agree. It is his intuition that has made him what he is today — someone who has taken a photograph of everyone from Kate Moss to Elizabeth II. That intuition, and a slightly deranged stubborn tenacity.

Before his illustrious career began, which included editing the magazines Hunger and Dazed and working for brands such as Rolls-Royce and Coca-Cola, Rankin grew up in a working-class family in Glasgow. They moved around a lot for Rankin’s father’s job, first to Yorkshire, then to St Albans. ‘I had a very broad education, because I went to three state schools that were all very, very different, and in a way, I think I was quite lucky,’ he says. This is both because it gave him a talent for accents — he can do a pretty passable Scottish and Yorkshire on demand — and because it gave him confidence when it comes to meeting new people. However at school he felt that he never really fitted in. ‘I loved school, but I never felt comfortable being in any group. I don’t really like them, and I don’t like clubs either.’ Ironic, considering he is the founder of two distinctive cult magazines.

It is his much beloved Scotland that he credits for his ‘contrarian’ nature. ‘Although I may sound very English, I am very very Scottish,’ Rankin says. ‘I’ve got something called “thrawn”, which is a Scottish word and which means I have an absolute problem with authority.’ It shows. Is this why Rankin chose a career where he could be his own boss? ‘I went into photography for a few reasons,’ he explains. ‘The first was that I kind of thought I'd be good at it before I did it. The second was down to where I went to college.’ Rankin attended Brighton Polytechnic, initially to study accountancy, like his mother, due to a talent for maths during his school years. ‘When I went to my residence I was lumped in with all these art students, and they were all like: “What the hell are you doing accountancy for? That’s not who you are at all.” And they really made me question myself. Up until that point, I hadn't really had anybody telling me that I was creative.’

Once the fuse was lit, there was no stopping him. ‘The minute I picked up a camera, I went: this is what I want to do,’ he says. No one else in his family was artistic, bar a little drawing occasionally carried out by his mother: ‘I was the first in a way and it was the best thing that could have happened to me, because I was a blank canvas.’ His girlfriend at the time, Samatha, was studying fashion. She showed him Peter Lindbergh’s photography and Patrick Demarchelier’s pictures of the model Jeny Howorth in ELLE magazine. ‘I thought they were amazing, seductive pictures — and beautiful,’ he recalls.

There was one problem: his name. Like Zendaya, Prince and Madonna, Rankin is known only by one name now, but this was not always the case. ‘I've got such a shit second name: Waddell,’ he says. That had to go. He got his first camera (a Ricoh) aged 21. ‘Frankly I’m not the biggest fan of being photographed or filmed myself,’ he says ‘but now it comes with the territory.’ He is currently offering a free service for up-and-coming photographers, where he gives advice after looking at their portfolio.

As well as skills with a camera, to be a photographer, Rankin thinks a certain noseyness is required. ‘You have to be really interested in the person you're working with. You kind of need to fall in love with them a little bit [this part I took as a compliment, as Rankin has in fact photographed me] because you've got to be their biggest fan, in a way.’ This was the case for him when it came to photographing the Royal Family (his fondness for them is the least Scottish thing about him, he says). ‘King Charles is a very thoughtful, very sweet guy,’ Rankin recalls. ‘Prince William was quite young when I met him, but he just seemed like a good guy to me.’ The stand out member of the royal family was Elizabeth II: ‘She was absolutely extraordinary. One of my favourite things, photographing her, was the power that came through the door. It was like, a wave just going over the top of me like: “Fucking hell, what the hell was that?”, and she had a really great sense of humour.’

Royals aside, his work is constant — and varied — from Rankin Live, where he takes photos of the general public (and which he will be running again this December) to a campaign for P&O Cruises, to work for luxury fashion houses and covers for publications like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar — in addition to the work he still does at Hunger. ‘I do say no to things,’ he says, ‘but I don't tend to bring my prejudice into it. I mean, I started one of the coolest magazines in the world [Dazed], so once you've done the coolest thing in the world, when people say: “This is cool,” I'm a bit like, “I'm sorry. I don't really like this formulaic idea of what's cool or not.” I remember when I left Dazed, I had wanted to do a shoot with Lady Gaga, and I was told by the team at Dazed, “She's not cool.” Then six months later they did her.’ Coolness in the industry is, Rankin thinks, all just ‘smoke and mirrors’.

Unusually, he is welcoming of AI, which has garnered him a fair bit of criticism from fellow creatives. His magazine and accompanying exhibition, both titled FAIK Off, featured AI-generated images and texts that questioned the future of human creativity. His Hunger cover with Jason Isaacs was a photograph of his that he enhanced using AI. He doesn’t care what anyone else thinks of him and has a get-on-board or miss out approach to the new technology. ‘I like to be liked, but I don’t sit at home at night worrying about what people say about me.’

He’s no longer impressed by the innate beauty of models (he has dated a few in his time), as he is used to being surrounded by beautiful people courtesy of his job. There is one exception: his model wife, Tuuli Shipster — who, in the biggest claim to fame I’ve ever heard, was one of the women dressed up as sexy Santa in Bill Nighy’s spoof music video in the film Love Actually. In the film, the music video is a direct parody of Robert Palmer's 1986 music video ‘Addicted to Love’.

‘What’s crazy, is when I first started taking photos, in 1988, I remember once being in a dark room listening to the radio and some guy phoned in. The DJ asked him: “What’s your claim to fame?”, and the man said: “I am going out with one of the girls in the ‘Addicted to Love’ music video, and she’s become my wife.” I remember thinking: “What a lucky bastard”.’

He insists that what drew him to Tuuli was not her beauty but her personality, ‘her light’ as he calls it, although he does mention that when they first met (on the set of an intimates campaign for Elle MacPherson) it was because he walked in accidentally when she was getting a spray tan naked, which I imagine didn’t put him off. Either way, he is clearly obsessed with everything about her. His assistants took their wedding photos and they were, understandably, ‘really really nervous about it’ but ‘they came out great,’ Rankin says. They live together with their four dogs — an elderly whippet called Beans, a mutt called Mavericks, a whippet cross called Squidge and a Chihuahua cross called Bandit, in London’s leafy Hampstead Heath — both Tuuli and the dogs are constant subjects of Rankin’s photography.

Your aesthetic hero

God, I like so many people's art, so it's impossible for me to answer. I just really love lots and lots and lots of things. I have a very diverse taste in art, and I think the thing that's important for me when I look at anything visual is that I feel something which is generally the aesthetic, which makes me think something at the same time — that's when I get really excited. I remember seeing Damien Hirst’s Away From the Flock, which is a which is a little lamb in formaldehyde, and just seeing it and going: 'That's extraordinary,' because it made me look at something that I've looked at before in such detail, but at the same time, it made me think about death in the most profound way.

A possession you’d never sell

I've got a lamp from my friend. I'm very friendly with Heidi Klum, and I did a book tour with her, because we did a book together. I was in this space in the West End, doing this event and signing books. We had dinner there afterwards and there was this lamp that was almost a Sphinx-like monkey holding a bowl and I absolutely love that lamp, because I love monkeys, and the next day it turned up at my studio. It was about £3000 but it was the event space’s lamp, so she must have just said: “How much for the lamp?” Now that is cool. I love it. It sits in my sitting room. I’d hate to ever lose that.

A book you’ve found inspiring

Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed. I would suggest that, because it's essentially a book that is trying to teach you to learn from your mistakes. And we all make mistakes. I read it, and I was like: ‘Shit — that's one of the best books I've read that really helped me reassess myself.’

An exhibition that has really impressed you

David Hockney’s Lightroom, because I saw it recently and it was clear that I love photography just as much as he loves painting.

The last thing of note you bought for yourself

I tried to buy a bike for myself, as I’ve got really into cycling, and I went to a shop called Evans in Kings Cross to buy a bike and they didn’t serve me for 30 minutes, so I left.

Your favourite painting

I mean, I have to say Damien [Hurst], because he’s been kind enough to paint me a painting. It’s the most amazing painting ever — and I look at it every day. It is one of his spin paintings and an incredible piece of work.

The music you work to

It’s really interesting, because we tend to get people to choose what they want to listen to, because it's about making them feel comfortable. The really good models will use the music as a way of being able to perform, because it's quite performative — it's a bit like being on a stage and dancing. If it was me having my photo taken I would probably choose something by the Rolling Stones, because it always gives me a kind of lift.

The last podcast you listened to

Either The Rest is History, The News Agents or The Rest is Politics — I listen to that a lot, but I haven't been listening to it a lot recently because it's just quite depressing at the moment. My go to would be The News Agents, because it's well assessed, and the presenters are all BBC trained, so they're all very good at it, but I like The Rest is History, as well, because I like their relationship, and I like Alistair [Campbell] a lot too.

The person that would play you in a film of your life

No one would make a film about my life, but I’d really love this kid that I photographed recently, if it was me young. I photographed Saoirse Ronan’s boyfriend, Jack Lowden. He looks a little bit like a better-looking version of me, and he's got that kind of Scottish thing. If I had to choose someone to play me, I'd choose him, also I think he's an underrated actor.

The items you collect

I don’t really collect anything, but I am a terrible hoarder, which my missus is really pushing me to work on recently. I think I collected stickers when I was five, six years old. I used to write to people asking them to send me stickers, but that's the only thing I've ever collected.

The best present you’ve ever received

The floorboard that my wife and I met on, when we did a job for Elle Macpherson’s intimates. The guy that owned the location that we did the shoot in when we got married, gave it to us as a present. We've got it in our bedroom, and it's a really lovely piece of wood, actually.

What you’d take with you to a desert island

My wife.

A hotel you could go back and back to

The Chateau Marmont, every day of the week, because it's the only hotel that really is still rock and roll. They don’t tell you not to do stuff. There's some hotels where they pretend to be rock and roll, but make you sign a contract saying you won't have a party, whereas at the Chateau Marmont you’re kind of encouraged to have a party. And there are parties going on all over the Chateau Marmont whenever you're there, so it's one of the best hotels I've ever been to. It's not necessarily the most luxurious, it's almost sort of frozen in the 1950s, in a way, but it's brilliant. When you go there you always meet someone interesting, something's always going on, so I love it, and I just have got so much love for the way they keep it the same. It also smells amazing — like clementines.

The thing that gets you up in the morning

My dogs, they get me up because they wake me up, so you have to walk them. It's the best form of exercise that you can have, having dogs, because you have to walk them, and you're really letting them down if you don't.

The most memorable meal you’ve ever eaten

I had a meal which wasn’t memorable because of the food, but it was memorable because of the people that came. It was Liam Gallagher, Patsy Kensit, Elvis Costello and Cait [O'Riordan], who was Elvis Costello's partner, who used to be the bass player in The Pogues, and it was one of the funniest and most rock-and-roll meals I've ever been to. It was with me and those four, and then Steve Dagger, who was Patsy's manager and Gary Kemp's manager. It was super feisty, and I'll never forget it. It was one of the most nuts things I've ever experienced. I mean, they're all lovely. I love all of them individually. So I love Elvis, I love Liam, I love Patsy, but I don't think they all loved each other. It's so funny. I even got taken out by a big security guard because it was so rock and roll. I can’t tell you the reason why.

Rankin is running Rankin Live this December, where members of the general public can have their photo taken by him. For more information on Rankin Live and how to book, visit Rankin's website.