Carl Apfelschnitt, James Chance, Madonna, Stephen Sprouse… How Kate Simon covered Manhattan’s cultural waterfront for The Face in the 80s

Mar 28th, 2018

//A Prayer For Madonna, The Face, September 1983. Photography: Kate Simon, text: James Truman. This was the superstar’s first substantial UK press appearance, five months ahead of her British live debut//

Of the many talented photographers who provided The Face with its visual verve, Kate Simon was uniquely positioned to chronicle the cutting edge cultural developments in New York in the 1980s.

Simon had spent much of the previous decade in London, photographing musicians and performers from Bob Marley and David Bowie to the Sex Pistols and The Clash (whose debut album features her striking portrait of Strummer, Jones and Simonon). Crucially, Simon’s work also appeared in the New Musical Express during The Face founder Nick Logan’s editorship of the music paper.

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Tags: Bob Marley, Carl Apfelschnitt, Cookie Mueller, Debi Mazar, Halston, James Chance, James Truman, Jellybean Benitez, John Giorno, Kate Simon, Keith Haring, Madonna, Nick Logan, Pierre Clementi, Radio City Music Hall, Riochard Sohl, Robert Mapplethorpe, Sonos, Stephen Sprouse

“Because it’s so damn good!” Extracts from my exclusive interview with pioneering illustrator/photographer Jim French, who has died aged 84

Jun 18th, 2017

//Jim French. Photo: SHOWStudio//

The American illustrator and photographer Jim French – best known for his pioneering endeavours in the field of homoerotic art – has died at home in Palm Springs at the age of 84.

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Tags: Andy Warhol, Bruce Weber, Colt Studios, Cowboys t-shirt, Hand In Glove, Herb Ritts, Jim French, Longhorns - Dance, Luger, Manpower, Margaret Walters, Morrissey, Philadelphia Museum School, Rip Colt, Robert Mapplethorpe, Sex Pistols, Tammis Keefe, The Male Nude, The Smiths, Tom Of Finland, Vivienne Westwood

Photography in a period of transition: London’s creative community captured down the decades in David Gwinnutt’s Portraits Trouvés

Apr 22nd, 2016

//Siouxsie Sioux, 42 Arlington Square, N1, 1982. © David Gwinnutt//

//”This was taken in hospital when she had the brain tumour but oddly seems to reflect the end of that heroin chic period.” The late photographer Corinne Day, Whitechapel Hospital, east London, 1996. © David Gwinnutt//

//Timberlina, east London 2009. © David Gwinnutt//

Photographer David Gwinnutt’s new show Portraits Trouvés at north London estate agency Currell provides documentation of the drastic transformation of our city through portraiture of some of the leading lights in arts and culture from the 80s to the 10s.

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Tags: Andrew Logan, B2, Corinne Day, Currell, Gilbert & George, Grayson Perry, Jonnny Woo, Leigh Bowery, Michael Clark, Neil Bartlett, Norman Rosenthal, Rhyannon, Robert Mapplethorpe, Ryan Styles, Ted Walker, Timberlina, Trojan

Beatbooks 57: Patti Smith

May 11th, 2011

Patti Smith is the focus of the latest Beatbooks sale, which is accompanied by a printed catalogue up to the usual high standards of the archive’s curator Andrew Sclanders.

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Tags: A Clockwork Orange, Al Hansen, Albert Camus, Andrew Sclanders, Anthony Burgess, BeatBooks, Charlotte Moorman & Nam June Paik, Gotham Book Mart, Harry Partch, Jim Carroll, John Cage, Jospeh Byrd, Karen Finley, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Larry Clark, Patti Smith, Richard hell, Richard Prince, Robert Mapplethorpe, Tod Dockstader, Vali Myers, Witt