Photos: A historic record of a West End reborn and a celebration of the resilience of London’s theater

Its mission was to provide a platform for the full spectrum of the West End’s finest talent both on and offstage. The project features people ranging from star actors, dancers, writers, directors and producers to costume, sound, lighting and set designers, puppeteers, technicians, dressers, stage managers, front of house staff and many more.

Rankin, a British photographer whose full name is John Rankin Waddell, had this to say about the project:

“Everyone working in theater has a story to tell of their experience over the past 18 months, inspiring tales of hardship, perseverance, patience, innovation, despair and joy. With this project, we want to celebrate the jewel in the crown of our city’s unparalleled culture sector — epitomized by these countless faces and voices who make up the backbone of London’s theater community and will spearhead its post-covid recovery.”

A landmark free exhibition of the portraits will run from March 13 to 22 at the Fujifilm House of Photography in the heart of London’s West End.

A book of the portraits has also been released, with all proceeds going to four London youth homelessness charities along with the Theatre Artists Fund, which provides emergency aid to struggling British theater freelancers.

Fujifilm collaborated with the celebrated photographer for the project, and he used the company’s Fujifilm GFX100 medium format camera to make all of the portraits in both the exhibition and the book.

During a discussion about the project held at Fujifilm’s House of Photography in Covent Garden, London, Rankin said:

“I met so many incredible people working on this project. The pictures bottle up the spirit of theater and live shows, and that is why the book is called ‘Performance.’”

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