Culture IRL: The Face [#178]
A new exhibition celebrating the World's Best Dressed Magazine
We were making it up as we went along on The Face.
- Founder Nick Logan, with help from Neville Brody.
So excited about this! I’ve booked The Face: Culture Shift tickets. I’m taking Julieta out on the town to celebrate getting through her mocks (three exams in one day). “It’s torture. I’ll be brain dead.” Tutor: “Well, at least you get it all over and done with in one day.”
Celebrating the first 25 years of The Face from 1980 to 2004 – bringing together more than 200 prints by over 80 photographers in a dazzling exhibition. What a throwback.
I’m a big fan of The Face. A cultural trailblazer covering music, fashion, film, politics and current affairs - with style, wit and ground-breaking graphic design. Lovely, thick paper, too. I used to carry it about town - it made me feel with it.
The term ‘face’ originated from 60s mod culture and meant someone with the right clothes, the right haircut, and the right taste in music...
It was a simpler time before social media when mags had a massive influence. Everybody wanted to be in it!
It launched Kate Moss’ career in 1990 (remember that cute B&W photo of her in an Amazonian feather headdress?). Shot by Corinne Day at Camber Sands.
Here’s the first issue, which Nick Logan funded with £3,500 of his own money, feat. Jerry Dammers of the Specials on the cover. 60p for a style magazine! 🤩
“Be very fast, and invisible”
Legendary music photographer Jill Furmanovsky also features in the exhibition. She gave an excellent talk to LFB and showed us some of her archive. Wow wow wow
I started photographing Madness in 1979 - and I think 1980 for The Face was my first shot of Madness leaning. It's not that I told them to lean - it was just that Madness are brilliant at arranging themselves in formations, and the 'naughty train' they perfected when they were just teenagers is a classic pose no band has ever matched.
I can’t wait to see what Julieta makes of it - TikTok has been her ‘magazine’ so we can swap notes.
Should I stay or should I go?
I was doing my training at Emap in Peterborough when they owned The Face (Logan sold it to Emap in 1999). They offered me work, but I was desperate to move to London and work on women’s mags. Anything was possible in London.
I remember showing my tutor Rupert a list of titles I wanted to work for, and The Face was on it. “That’s an eclectic mix of magazines,“ he said.
Emap pulled the plug on it in 2004 due to declining sales - and digital was taking over. Most of the mags were launching websites.
It was resurrected in 2019 with brand partnerships, an agency service, sponsored social etc, but the print magazine has remained pivotal.
The time felt right for a magazine that offered a certain amount of curation when the internet offered endless scrolling and information.
- Editor Matthew Whitehouse told Newsbeat
Kathryn Blundell, a lecturer in journalism, is quoted in the piece saying it’s interesting that they’re targeting young readers, when those in their 40s-50s are more established magazine buyers…
Good to see some print mags are surviving and thriving in the digital age.
Print adds kudos and connects brands with their audience. Magazines are intimate, tactile, and have an endpoint. I need that. Nothing beats curling up with one and going on a journey.
Thanks to Nick, Neville (and the team) for making a fabulous magazine. And for the reminder about making it up as we go along. We’re still doing that btw, some things never change.
Issue 22 out now [The Face]
The Face: Celebrating ‘most influential’ magazine [BBC]
The Face Magazine: Culture Shift runs until 18 May [NPG]
This is the sound of the exhibition – take a trip down memory lane!
Cheers, Nika 🥂
PS If you’ve got any back copies, send me a pic of the cover!
📢 Submissions wanted!
Thought it would be fun to do a mag montage in March to celebrate IWD 2025. Tell me what impact women’s magazines had on you growing up. And if you have a funny story about working on one. Leave a comment or email nika@nikatalbot.io.
🔗 Link About It
Copyright & AI consultation response - CMS and SCIT committee chairs have written to the government asking them to “introduce practical measures to provide transparency on AI training data, whatever its approach to copyright law.” [Read]
Over 1,000 musicians came together to release Is This What We Want?, an album protesting the UK government’s proposed changes to copyright law. All profits are being donated to the charity Help Musicians. [Listen]
An excellent webinar series from Beehiiv to help you grow a sustainable media business (on any platform). A shoutout to Francis Zierer for the one on ‘streamlining your newsletter writing process’ - a thoughtful approach. [Watch]
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