British Photographer Rankin Closes Ad Agency Citing AI as a Problem

The British photographer Rankin has been forced to declare his ad agency bankrupt after accumulating debts of over $1.7 million.

Rankin has had to liquidate Rankin Group after receiving an “unforeseen tax bill” with some staff still waiting on their redundancy payments, according to a report in The Art Newspaper.

Rankin is the foremost photographer operating in the U.K. having photographed an array of stars including Queen Elizabeth II, Robert Downey Jr., and David Bowie. He has been featured on PetaPixel several times including recently for work he did with a whiskey company.

Rankin’s photography business Rankin & Co. — which also includes his directing and production work — is not part of the Rankin Group and therefore not subject to the insolvency proceedings.

“The Rankin Group was forced into liquidation because of an unforeseen tax bill, which meant that some staff did not receive their entire redundancy payments,” Rankin tells The Art Newspaper.

“The HMRC [Britain’s equivalent to the IRS] bill came as a big shock to us when we received the demand. Up until that point, we were looking at a recovery plan or, in the worst-case scenario, a winding down. Even after the demand, I tried to work out a deal, but it was just too late.”

Rankin reportedly owes the British taxman $1.3 million (£1 million) and owes employees $393,000 (£300,000). The sum owed to employees is “primarily claims arising from the closure of the business—redundancy or notice, as opposed to arrears of wages—much of which will be recovered from the Redundancy Payments Service,” according to Rankin.

Changing Market

Rankin tells The Art Newspaper that the Rankin Group — which was founded five years ago — did well for its first three years but began struggling in the last two. The celebrity photographer says work began to dwindle which he speculates could be because of technological advancements like AI.

“Whether it was due to reduced budgets around the economy or losing work to programmatic and AI-based solutions, it was a massively challenging period for us and many other services like us,” he says.

“In addition, the technological revolution has essentially gutted a lot of the creative services agencies delivering great non-programmatic work. Sadly, that is what we were selling: a bespoke creative service around storytelling and brand building. When you combine that, with the lack of face-to-face work and meetings post-covid, it’s been a perfect storm. I couldn’t be more disappointed with both myself and the business for not being able to make the agency a success. I put everything I had into it, but it just wasn’t enough to make it work.”