The David Gandy picture is British photographe Rankin's recreation of the iconic Herb Ritts photo Fred with Tyres. It was taken as part of a BBC4 documentary Seven Photographs that Changed Fashion. David Gandy is the only male model in the show. Rankin used the same camera as the late Ritts [1952-2002] and shot - gasp - on film.
I need to say that the Rankin picture misses the essential element of the original: That is the quotidien nature of Fred's beauty. I would argue that that is the 'meaning' of this picture, actually. Fred - even the name suggests everyday-ness - was a total unknown, a jewel in the rough discovered by Ritts's lens. He has the romance of a Dickens chimney-sweep, a sort of male Cinderella, obscured by grease. David Gandy, on the other hand is argueably today's top male model. And he's not young is he? Perhaps this is the point of the Rankin picture? That today, there are no more unknowns, and everyone on the internet can be a celebrity, and everyone with a Facebook account objectifies their own beauty obsessively. What do you all think?
pls post the 7 pix. i wana know why they change fashion.
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