Paul Gorman

Robert Mapplethorpe

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

//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.

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

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

//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.

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

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

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

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