Another development in commercial photography in the Eighties, especially in fashion work, has been the collaboration of the photographer and stylist. Ray Petri and Caroline Baker (stylists) have worked with Jamie Morgan and Robert Erdman (photographers) to create fashion spreads which are not only influential on âstreet fashionâ but have also dictated the look of models over the past few years. However, much of the photography in the magazine relies heavily on influences form the past. Sixties photographers Terence Donovan and David Bailey spring readily to mind⊠and yet, when the photographs are placed in a magazine format, the stylish design and layout changes the way in which the are viewed. The exhibition attempts to show something of this dichotomy.
The exhibition is also about looking at popular social history in the making. THE FACE is one of many magazines around today and yet presents the strongest and arguably most successful identity for youth in the 1980s. The photographs illustrate the balance achieved between representing the new and outrageous with more established figures and folk heroes. The very fact that the magazine is called THE FACE and most of the photographs exhibited are portraits suggests there is something both image and self-conscious about the way in which cult heroes and heroines are viewed in this decade.â Â
Tony Arefin and Alex Noble, Exhibition Organisers. Text taken from the exhibition leaflet.
Featuring work by Anton Corbjin, Chalkie Davies, Jill Furmanovsky, Mike Laye, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jamie Morgan, Sheila Rock & Carol Starr.Â
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For further information on this and past exhibitions, visit our Archive and Study Room.