Female celebrity looks unrecognisable as she models a spiky punk hairstyle in throwback portrait from legendary photographer Rankin… but can YOU guess who it is?

A well known female celebrity looks unrecognisable in an unearthed Rankin photograph from the late Nineties.

The star donned a punk look and her short hair was gelled up into spikes as she stood in front of a blue background.

She bit her thumb and looked away from the camera, wearing a gorgeous rich shiny orange jacket. 

The image was taken for Issue 46 of bi-monthly British lifestyle magazine Dazed & Confused, released in 1998.

So… do you know who it is? 

It’s Academy Award-winning actress and Barbie narrator Dame Helen Mirren! 

The image is just one from over 200 editorial shoots by Rankin for his magazine that will be celebrated in exhibition Back In the Dazed: Rankin 1991-2001, in London from Tuesday.

Helen, 78, was recently in France where she was rubbing shoulders with fellow A-listers at the Cannes Film Festival.

She stayed at the swanky Hotel Martinez which costs £1,000-a-night and boasts its own private beach. 

Helen is growing older gracefully and in an interview with ELLE UK published on Tuesday, she said: ‘We are all going to age, there’s no way out of that fact.

‘When you’re 20, you can’t even imagine that you’ll ever be in your seventies – but it’s only if you’re lucky, very lucky, that you’ll get to experience it.’

Helen said of the Festival: ‘It’s always wonderfully eccentric at Cannes, and I love being in the car going to the Palais … with all of these people dressed to the nines, or perhaps some of them hardly dressed at all.’

Since 2022, Helen has appeared in Paramount+ American Western drama television series 1923 opposite Harrison Ford.

A new exhibition, Back in the Dazed highlights one photographer, Rankin, and one magazine, his own, Dazed & Confused, across one memorable decade. 

From lauded actors to musical icons, Rankin was at the forefront of Cool Britannia and ’90s style which is still popular today. 

Dazed & Confused’s first photographic editor, Rankin’s visual style launched the magazine into notoriety and helped define the aesthetics of multiple generations of Brits.

Rankin spearheaded LGBTQIA+ representation, took his camera to the street to photograph working-class kids, becoming ‘the’ photographer for Brit-pop bands.

He handed notions of ‘high-culture’ to everyday people and, with Dazed, he gave ordinary teenagers their voice and allowed them access to, and opinions on, contemporary art and experimental music. 

Back In The Dazed is the first retrospective in the UK of Rankin’s ground breaking works over this prescient decade. More vital than ever, through Rankin’s eye you’re invited to explore the culture and creative community that was celebrated world-over. 

Rankin shared: ‘Those early years were great for experimentation. For me, just starting out, I was like a blank canvas.  

‘Because we were pretty naively fearless, we did things that ended up really changing culture. 

‘It was from that time that I learnt that I love what I do, and I fell in love with the people around me – capturing them all on medium format film.’

Back in the Dazed is a love letter to youthful creativity, all as captured by one legendary photographer and published by one seminal magazine.

On display May 28 – June 23, 180 Studios, London. Tickets available from 180studios.com/rankin