The best portraits happen when you strip away all the pretense, all the masks people wear, and you find that raw, honest moment. That's when magic happens.
— RankinScottish photographer and filmmaker known for provocative social documentary work
“The small act of paying attention to people is extraordinarily rewarding to every member of the team — and it’s amplified in an inverse way from their level on the hierarchy.”— Victor Vescovo
The quote archive
Wisdom in fragments
A growing archive of 3,000+ moments, drawn from every interview.
Photography has become the universal language. It doesn't matter what country you're from, what language you speak, we all understand images. That's what makes it so powerful and so dangerous.
— RankinScottish photographer and filmmaker known for provocative social documentary work
When you're behind a camera, you have this incredible power to freeze a moment in time. But with that power comes responsibility. You're not just taking a picture, you're creating a narrative, you're telling a story.
— RankinScottish photographer and filmmaker known for provocative social documentary work
I've always believed that everyone can look like a magazine cover star. It's not about being born beautiful, it's about finding that moment, that light, that expression that makes you shine.
— RankinScottish photographer and filmmaker known for provocative social documentary work
The camera doesn't lie, but the photographer does. And that's the beauty of it. Photography is about interpretation, it's about your point of view, it's about how you see the world.
— RankinScottish photographer and filmmaker known for provocative social documentary work
I think the democratisation of the image is probably one of the most important things that's happening right now. Everyone's a photographer now, everyone's got a camera, everyone's taking pictures. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it does mean we have to be more critical about what we're looking at.
— RankinScottish photographer and filmmaker known for provocative social documentary work
If a product is really good, time will give it the justice of beauty -that's real beauty, intelligence beauty, honest beauty.
— Philippe StarckRenowned French Industrial Designer & Architect Known for Innovative Product Design
I don't care about legacy, it's an old idea because we don't consume time like we did before. Time is now simultaneous – before, it was linear. Today it is a wall in front of us. When time is a wall, there is no place for legacy.
— Philippe StarckRenowned French Industrial Designer & Architect Known for Innovative Product Design
Life is just receiving a rope from your parents. A rope of a certain quality, with a certain diameter and of a certain material. Your only duty is to take the rope and try to make a better one. Your only duty is to make the best rope you can for your children, for the next generation.
— Philippe StarckRenowned French Industrial Designer & Architect Known for Innovative Product Design
We must never confuse the pipe with the content. Today, we are fascinated by the pipe and nobody thinks of what is within. There is a pipe full of intelligence, and a pipe full of shit. You have to choose the good one, not the fascinating one.
— Philippe StarckRenowned French Industrial Designer & Architect Known for Innovative Product Design
The first thing to do for our ecology is not to use less electricity, it's to cease buying things that are not useful.
— Philippe StarckRenowned French Industrial Designer & Architect Known for Innovative Product Design
We are the only species who have taken control of their evolution. We are animals who – one day – had an idea to become better. Billions of us have worked to make ourselves better – that's why we created the concept of God, an entity that is everywhere, that is powerful, that is the master of everything, that gives us a unique model for our society. Now we know God doesn't exist, and so we know we are better than that notion of God.
— Philippe StarckRenowned French Industrial Designer & Architect Known for Innovative Product Design
That thing of me being anonymous and just the music that's moving the person.
— Nile RodgersLegendary Guitarist & Producer: Chic Founder, Producer for David Bowie, Madonna
You know how difficult that is in a nightclub in New York at 5 in the morning? Everybody just stopped and started listening.
— Nile RodgersLegendary Guitarist & Producer: Chic Founder, Producer for David Bowie, Madonna
The only time I ever heard the song was in my head when I wrote it and when we recorded it that night. The next time I heard it was in a room full of strangers dancing to it.
— Nile RodgersLegendary Guitarist & Producer: Chic Founder, Producer for David Bowie, Madonna
Listen, I was so poor I couldn't even afford to get a copy of my own record. This is before cassette tapes, I couldn't even get an acetate made so I could go listen at home.
— Nile RodgersLegendary Guitarist & Producer: Chic Founder, Producer for David Bowie, Madonna