Rankin to helm new BBC series, the Great British Photography Challenge

Renowned portrait photographer, filmmaker and Dazed founder Rankin will act as lead mentor in a new BBC television series called the Great British Photography Challenge. Contestants on the show will be tutored by Rankin alongside celebrity guests and leading names from the creative world, including presenter and photographer Chris Packham, documentarian Maryam Wahid, photographer Lamarr Golding, actor Anna Friel and stylist Cheryl Konteh. The four-part series will see the photographers respond creatively to a series of briefs, with a winner chosen in the final episode.

Each episode will start with an on-the-spot challenge set by Rankin, to respond to a brief in an hour using just a smartphone camera. Then the special guests will set challenges suited to their area of expertise, across wildlife, fashion, documentary and street photography.

The contestants have been selected through a nationwide search by the BBC, and hail from Northampton, London, Dorchester, Luton, Shrewsbury and Dunfermline. Across the series, they will build and create a portfolio of their work, to be revealed at an exhibition in the final episode, from which the winner will be selected.

Rankin says that being part of the series has been “an incredible opportunity to nurture the next generation of photographers. All the contestants had such unique and varied backgrounds, but what brought them together was their love for photography. The contestants have exceptional promise and I’m excited for the UK to see their talent”.

The series is the latest in a slew of creative programmes on British TV, from Grayson Perry’s hugely successful Art Club and the Great Pottery Throw Down both on Channel 4, to the BBC’s Great British Sewing Bee.

In 2019, we interviewed Rankin for In Conversation, where he shared a lesson he’d learnt from his own creative education: “When I went to college, my tutors would try to analyse and deconstruct work but that’s not how people read photos. The reality is most people just look at a photo and get a feeling from it, it’s more immediate.”

Great British Photography Challenge will broadcast on BBC Four and iPlayer this summer.