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 unrecognizable in an unearthed Rankin photo from the late 1990s.

The star sported a punk look and her short hair was done up in spikes as she stood in front of a blue backdrop.

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

The photo was taken for issue 46 of the bimonthly British lifestyle magazine Dazed & Confused, released in 1998.

So…do you know who it is?

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

The image is just one of Rankin’s more than 200 editorial shoots for his magazine, which will be celebrated in London from Tuesday in the exhibition Back In the Dazed: Rankin 1991-2001.

Helen, 78, was recently in France, where she worked with other A-listers at the Cannes Film Festival.

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

Helen is aging gracefully and in an interview with ELLE UK published on Tuesday, she said: ‘We are all getting older, there is no way around that.

‘When you’re in your twenties, you can’t even imagine that you’ll ever live to be in your seventies. But only if you are lucky, very lucky, you can experience it.’

Helen said of the festival: ‘It’s always wonderfully eccentric in Cannes, and I love sitting in the car on the way to the Palais… with all these people dressed to the nines, or maybe some are of them barely clothed.’

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

It’s Academy Award-winning actress and Barbie storyteller Dame Helen Mirren! (pictured at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival)

Helen recently said: ‘It’s always wonderfully eccentric in Cannes… with all these people dressed to the nines, or maybe some of them are barely dressed’

The image is just one of Rankin’s more than 200 editorial shoots for his magazine that will be celebrated in Back In the Dazed: Rankin 1991-2001 (photo: another, Charlie Watts)

In one particularly artsy photo, a busty Natasha Helms was about to take a sip from a mug featuring a dancing Robbie Williams

A photo from 1994 shows Kylie Minogue naked, lying on a white floor, with her head turned sideways. It was part of The Kylie Bible

A new exhibition, Back in the Dazed, spotlights one photographer, Rankin, and one magazine, his own, Dazed & Confused, over a momentous decade.

From acclaimed actors to musical icons, Rankin spearheaded the Cool Britannia and ’90s style that remains popular today.

Rankin’s first photo editor, the visual style of Dazed & Confused propelled the magazine to prominence and helped define the aesthetic of several generations of Britons.

Rankin led LGBTQIA+ representation, taking his camera to the streets to photograph working-class children and becoming ‘the’ photographer for Brit-pop bands.

He conveyed notions of ‘high culture’ to ordinary people and, with Dazed, gave ordinary teenagers their voice and access to and opinions on contemporary art and experimental music.

Back In The Dazed is Britain’s first retrospective of Rankin’s groundbreaking works from this prescient decade. More important than ever, through Rankin’s eye you are invited to explore the culture and creative community celebrated around the world.

Rankin says: ‘Those first years were great for experimenting. For me, when I first started, I was like a blank canvas.

“Because we were quite naive and fearless, we did things that ended up really changing the culture.

“From that time on, I learned 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, captured by a legendary photographer and published by a groundbreaking magazine.

On view from May 28 to June 23, 180 Studios, London. Tickets available at 180studios.com/rankin

British filmmaker Terry Gilliam was the star of a very creepy shot in which his face was reflected in a glass of water