‘The Face’ hosts an exhibition of images that helped shape ’80s, ’90s and early noughties culture

Few publications had an impact on 1980s and ’90s culture as The Face did – up until 2004, actually, when the magazine ceased being printed and distributed internationally (much to the dismay of fashionistas the world over). A trail-blazing entertainment and lifestyle magazine, The Face helped shape the creative and cultural landscapes in Britain and beyond for a solid two-and-a-half decades.

I remember as a teen, eagerly awaiting each monthly issue, which would arrive on Australian newsstands two months after official publication date, but still boasting an attitude and style eons ahead of our antipodean tastes.

Australia hardly had any style magazines of our own to turn to, not until the likes of oyster, cream and (not only) black & white and blue came along in the early 1990s (yes, each in imperative lowercase lettering on their mastheads, making way for the new world wide web).

The publishers of each of these homegrown magazines will freely admit to having taken inspiration from The Face, myself included. In fact, I don’t think Cream would have been born had I not been educated in the adventurous aesthetics and ethos of The Face.

From 1980 to 2004, the physical magazine played a vital role in shaping contemporary culture. Fledgling models, musicians and actors would feature on its covers and become renowned worldwide, virtually overnight. Think: Kate Moss, Neneh Cherry, Blur’s Damon Albarn, the Oasis lads, and so on. The Face also launched the careers of many photographers and fashion stylists, each given the creative freedom to reimagine fashion photography that aptly captured the zeitgeist, month after month.

The works of many of those photographers and style-shapers can now be seen in the exhibition The Face Magazine: Culture Shift, on at the National Portrait Gallery, London.

The exhibition features the works of over 80 photographers including Jamie Morgan, Stéphane Sednaoui, Sheila Rock, Corinne Day, Elaine Constantine, David Sims, Peter Ashworth, Sølve Sundsbø, Norbert Schoerner and more. Many of these images are being featured on gallery walls for the first time since being published in The Face.

The Face Magazine: Culture Shift is curated by Sabina Jaskot-Gill, Senior Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery, together with Curatorial Consultants Lee Swillingham, former Art Director of The Face from 1992 to 1999, and Norbert Schoerner, who captured the memorable Kylie portrait, above.

Other iconic sitters featured in the exhibition include Annie Lennox, Kurt Cobain, Kate Moss, Iggy Pop, Snoop Dogg, David Bowie, Ewan McGregor, Madness, and The Sex Pistols.

Far from being a relic of the past, The Face continues to lead the way in presenting an ever-changing pop cultural landscape, evident in its ardent reporting on theface.com.

Antonino Tati

‘The Face Magazine: Culture Shift’ exhibition is on at the National Portrait Gallery in London until May 18, 2025. For more information visit www.npg.org.uk.