The Face Magazine: Culture Shift (Paperback)

Celebrating the incredible legacy of an influential British style magazine through a quarter century of its most iconic portraits

Groundbreaking British youth culture and style magazine The Face established the careers of generations of photographers, journalists, designers and models. Founded in 1980 in London by English journalist Nick Logan, it is known for its distinctive, radical and of-the-minute design and its unflinching attitude. The magazine originally focused on music but branched into fashion and culture more widely, as well as encompassing political and social commentary. Initially running from 1980 to 2004, its strong inclusive stance, bold design and experimental approaches to photography still feel fresh and relevant today. In 2019, the magazine was relaunched for a new generation, while staying true to Logan’s original vision.
This volume celebrates the ongoing legacy of The Face in British art, design and culture through some of the most iconic portraits from the magazine’s first 25 years. It showcases striking portraits taken by the likes of Miles Aldridge, Elaine Constantine, Corinne Day, David LaChapelle and Juergen Teller. The photographs feature such iconic figures as Kate Moss, Annie Lennox, Kurt Cobain, Iggy Pop, Snoop Dogg, David Bowie, Ewan McGregor, Madness, The Clash and Kylie Minogue. The book also includes selected covers and spreads from the original print magazine, complemented by words from key contributors to the original magazine. Published to accompany the eponymous exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London, this volume is a critical tool in understanding the astounding influence of The Face on style photography as well as the magazine’s enduring impact on visual culture in Britain and beyond.

Dr Sabina Jaskot-Gill is Senior Curator, Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, London, where she develops and curates exhibitions and displays of photography and new media. Recent examples include Hold Still (2020), Only Human: Martin Parr (2019), John Stezaker: Portrait (2019), In Focus: Rinko Kawauchi (2018), Black is the New Black: Portraits by Simon Frederick (2018), Siân Davey: We Are Family (2017), Thomas Ruff Portraits (2017) and Double Take: Akram Zaatari and the Arab Image Foundation (2017). She also curated the 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2023 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize exhibitions.

Ekow Eshun is a British writer, curator, and broadcaster. He was a regular contributor to The Face and went on to become the magazine’s Assistant Editor from 1994 to 1997. Eshun was editor of Arena magazine and later Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. He is Chairman of the Fourth Plinth, overseeing Britain’s foremost public art programme. He is the author of books including The Strangers (2024), In the Black Fantastic (2022), Black Gold of the Sun (2005), shortlisted for the Orwell prize, and editor of The Time is Always Now (2024) and Reframing The Black Figure (2024).

Jamie Morgan is a photographer and filmmaker. He worked closely with the stylist Ray Petri, with whom he formed Buffalo, a collective, style and attitude brought to the public by magazines including The Face. Morgan progressed into filmmaking and has shot music videos, fashion films, and feature-length documentaries. As a musician, he released two solo albums and co-wrote Neneh Cherry’s 1988 hit ‘Buffalo Stance’. Morgan continues to work as a photographer and filmmaker, shooting for magazines including Arena HOMME+, Dazed, i-D, British Vogue and CR Fashion Book and with brands including Givenchy, Martine Rose, Alexander Wang, Timberland, Nike, John Varvatos, Shoreditch Ski Club, Tommy Hilfiger and Ozwald Boateng.

Pete Paphides is a music writer, broadcaster and lifelong collector of records and music magazines. Since 1992, his work has appeared in The Times, The Guardian, Mojo, Uncut, Q, Melody Maker, Record Collector and Radio Times. He has written and presented several music documentaries for BBC Radio 4 including The Songs of Molly Drake, which won New York Festival Gold Radio Award for Best Music Special. Published in 2020, his childhood memoir Broken Greek won the RSL Christopher Bland Prize and The Penderyn Prize for Music Book of the Year. He also runs the record label Needle Mythology.

Nick Logan is a journalist, editor and publisher, best known for having founded The Face. He was editor of NME from 1973 before founding the pop magazine Smash Hits. Recognising a gap in the market for a monthly magazine focused on music and wider issues, he founded The Face independently in 1979, with the first issue launching in 1980. In parallel, he published and edited several other magazines including men’s magazine Arena, which launched in 1986.

Lee Swillingham was Creative Director at The Face from 1992 to 1999. He is the founder, with Stuart Spalding, of the advertising and design agency Suburbia. The pair were Creative Directors for the style magazines Pop in the early 2000s and Love in the 2010s. They have created campaigns for brands including Gucci, Loewe, Salvatore Ferragamo, Miu Miu, Diesel, Rolex, Zara, H&M, MAC Cosmetics and Apple. In 2020 they were appointed Creative Directors-at-Large at British Vogue, and in 2024 they were named Executive Creative Directors at Harper’s Bazaar Italia.

Neville Brody was art director of The Face from 1981 to 1986 and Arena from 1987 to 1990. His design agency, Brody Associates, works worldwide with clients such as Coca-Cola, BBC, Sony Music, Channel 4, Christian Dior, Supreme, Mayo Clinic, The Times, Samsung, and Shiseido. Previously president of D&AD, he is Professor of Communication at the Royal College of Art and a Royal Designer for Industry. He has always been focused on education and how it can change to better support creative development and opportunity. In 2023, Brody’s hotly awaited new publication, The Graphic Language of Neville Brody 3, was launched in partnership with Thames and Hudson.

Jill Furmanovsky is a photographer acclaimed for her images of rock musicians, from Pink Floyd to Oasis. Her books include The Moment – 25 Years of Rock Photography (1995) and Oasis: Knebworth (2021). Furmanovsky is the founder of the collective Rockarchive, promoting the work of music photographers and making it accessible to wider audiences. She was a photographer for The Face in the 1980s, and nine of her portraits are held in the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection, featuring sitters including Madness, Debbie Harry, Chrissie Hynde, Björk and Joan Armatrading.

Sheila Rock is a celebrated photographer whose career was launched though commissions for The Face. She photographed musicians including David Bowie, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Clash, and later worked in fashion and art portraiture. Rock’s photographs have been published in Vogue Germany, Elle, Architectural Digest, The Sunday Times, TIME and Rolling Stone. Her works are in the Collection of the National Portrait Gallery and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Her books include Sera (2003), Punk+ (2013), Tough & Tender (2015) Young Punks (2020), 80s Sound and Vision (2022) and New Romantics (2023).

Norbert Schoerner is a photographer and filmmaker whose images have featured in magazines including The Face, NY Times and Vogue, as well as in campaigns for brands including Comme des Garçons and Prada. Having been one of the first photographers to experiment with digital post-production, his practice is characterised by a rigorous yet playful probing of the possibilities of the image in an age of cultural and technological acceleration. Schoerner’s work has been presented in galleries, public institutions and at festivals including Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt; Fitzrovia Chapel, London; and Cannes International Film Festival. His monographs and artist’s books include The Order of Things (2002), Third Life (2012) and Pictures I Never Took (2017).

Stéphane Sednaoui is a photographer, music video director, film producer and actor. He has directed over 40 music videos for bands ranging from Bjork to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as well as working as a photojournalist. His fashion photographs and portraits have been published in Vogue Italia, Vogue China, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times Magazine among others. Sedanaoui’s work has been exhibited at MoMA (2015) and the Brooklyn Museum (2013), New York; the Barbican, London (2014); the Grand Palais, Paris (2015); and the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2015).

Elaine Constantine is a photographer and film director. She became renowned in the 1990s for her colourful, energised portrayals of British youth and shot regularly for clients such as Vogue, The Face, i-D, W, Katherine Hamnett, Diesel and Burberry. In 2015 her debut feature, Northern Soul, was nominated for BAFTA’s Outstanding Debut Award. Constantine’s work has been exhibited at major venues internationally and her work is held in collections including those of the V&A and the National Portrait Gallery, London. More recently, she has shot for The Face, The New York Times, Vogue China, Gucci, COACH and Beauty Papers.

Glen Luchford is a fashion and portrait photographer, who has worked with magazines including British Vogue, French Vogue and Vanity Fair. His work featured in The Face from 1990 onwards. He has shot campaigns for brands including Gucci, Valentino, Alexander McQueen, Yves Saint Laurent, Miu Miu, Chloé, Prada, Supreme and Calvin Klein. Luchford’s 2001 film Here to Where was nominated for the Michael Powell Award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. His books include Jenny Saville & Glen Luchford: Closed Contact (Gagosian, 2002) and Glen Luchford: Pictorialism (Rizzoli, 2014). His work is in the permanent collections of museums including the V&A, MoMA and the Getty.

Nancy Rohde is a celebrated fashion stylist whose first commission came from The Face in 1993. Originally trained as a photographer, her editorial spreads have appeared in TeenVogue, Vogue Italia, Vogue China, 10 Magazine, Dazed, i-D, Nova, Beauty Papers and AnOther Man. She has collaborated with photographers including Paolo Roversi, David Sims, Steven Klein, Inez & Vinoodh; with brands including Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Prada, Miu Miu, Margaret Howell, H&M, Zara, Selfridges, Barneys NY and Gap; and as a consultant to designers including Dries Van Noten. Rohde has also worked with London College of Fashion and Kingston University as a lecturer and mentor.

Matthew Whitehouse is a writer and editor from Morecambe, Lancashire. Formerly Arts and Culture Editor for i-D, he is Editor-in-Chief of The Face, having joined the magazine for its relaunch in 2019. Prior to entering journalism, Whitehouse was a musician whose band, The Heartbreaks, achieved notable success in Japan, earning comparisons to The Smiths and spending eight weeks in the country’s Hot 100, peaking at number nine in the chart. Even more prior, Whitehouse was a professional ice cream man, and was named the North West’s Under 21 Fastest Soft Serve Pourer 2008–2009.