Alex Donohue
We spoke to the people who took part in the Here I Am photo shoot with Rankin and asked them about their experiences taking part, and Rankin gave his verdict too.
Rankin
All too often we overlook people with a learning disability
A learning disability is to do with the way someone's brain works. It makes it harder for someone to learn, understand or do things. , it is so easy to miss the person and see a stereotype instead. With these images I want people to see past the learning disability; to catch a glimpse of who each individual is, their personality and identity.
Rahima
Exciting, very happy, she really enjoyed the day, it was a fantastic experience - she absolutely loved it. Rankin is lovely, very kind, a very lovely person.
Aeren
It was fun, it was different, exciting and new. Rankin was lovely. Normally I think models have it easy but they don’t!
Joe
Very cool. Rankin is a very nice guy.
Vijay
I found it useful and interesting. I think what I found interesting was knowing about different photo styles. I’ve never worked with a professional photographer before like Rankin, he’s like a top photographer. I would say i think it was great, great to work with Rankin. The makeup was unusual, never had that before. I’m not used to it but I coped!
Sarah Gordy
It was fantastic! I love Rankin’s work; I’m a big fan. Taking photos with him has been an honour.
Richard and Esther
R: Very interesting, positive to get the message across about learning disability
E: What i have learned is to get the message across to get more understanding of people with a learning disability, because if they don’t have the understanding, how can they move forward in life? They need help and support from Mencap to get the message across. Let’s just put ourselves out there and get our voices heard.
R: It was good, I just said no tongues!
E: Yes, we made some jokes along the way and a few laughs.
R: Rankin was very good, we had a little joke about, didn’t we Esther?
E: He’s kind of a laugh, he’s a natural. He makes you feel at home and it feels like you want to be there and that he’s there to support you and he comes across as funny, a laugh and a joker.
R: Very supportive.