Rankin - SOFASOSEXY - 2002

"SOFASOSEXY" is a collection of works by British photographer Rankin. Since the 1990s, Rankin has been creating images that are strongly conscious of physicality and media through fashion magazines and celebrity portraits, and his provocative yet calculated direction has made him a symbol of contemporary visual culture.

This book, centered around works produced in the early 2000s, focuses on the models' bodies, poses, and gazes on the limited stage setting of a sofa, strongly evoking the relationship between seeing and being seen. While sensuality is at the forefront, it is not simply titillating; it functions as a device to exaggerate and expose the very mold of "sexiness" that magazines and advertising have created.

In terms of photographic history, this book resonates with the trends around the year 2000 that straddled the boundary between editorial photography and art, and leaves the viewer with questions about how the body is constituted as a consumable image.