My blog thus far has been “anonyme” in the French sense. Above is the one and possibly ONLY image of me that the blog will ever reveal. The reason behind this apparent change of heart…Rankin. What started as a jovial tweet from my mate Juan, followed by a few emails, resulted in the above shot (I’m on the left by the way!) I would like to make one thing clear, this is not the normal me; this is the enhanced me, lit by death lamp and shot by a genius. The process itself was phenomenal. I toyed with the idea of puling out all week, as I have never been comfortable in front of the camera. The Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane housed Rankin’s makeshift studio and stunning exhibition and once in, there was no escape. Hair and make-up was a treat, laid-back and WAY more fun than expected (I am possibly the only person in the world that pre-imagined that this would be torture!) I was first up, thank goodness, as if I’d seen another be “Ranked” my nerves would have increased ten-fold. Rankin breezed in, cool and calm with his team at his side and a suitably bold soundtrack to match. One element I really wasn’t expecting was the interactivity of the exhibition – there was an open gallery, I was being watched, there was a film crew! By now I was in robot-adrenalin mode, so just got on with it. I was about as natural as polyester in front of the lens but I learned a lot; for instance, I angle my head each time I smile, my cheese-monger grin produces more wrinkles than an Olympus can handle and blonde facial hair shows up like a rug under the death lamp! The main lesson I learned as an amateur faced with a camera, was that with the aid of an astounding photographer, extreme lighting and Photoshop, we can all, even mere mortals, be transformed.