the face magazine: culture shift

Curated by Norbert Schoerner, Lee Swillingham and Sabina Jaskot-Gill
20.02 – 18.05.2025

“The premise which made – and still makes – The Face unique was that youth and pop culture should be treated with the sort of reverence and critical intelligence that prior to May 1980 was almost exclusively associated with the highbrow.”
– Richard Benson, Editor

The Face Magazine: Culture Shift celebrates iconic fashion images and portraits from The Face, a trail-blazing youth culture and style magazine that has shaped the creative and cultural landscape in Britain and beyond.

From 1980 to 2004, The Face played a vital role in creating contemporary culture. Musicians featured on its covers achieved global success and the models it championed – including a young Kate Moss – became the most recognisable faces of their time. The magazine also launched the careers of many leading photographers and fashion stylists, who were given the creative freedom to radically reimagine the visual language of fashion photography and define the spirit of their times. Relaunched in 2019, the magazine continues to provide a disruptive and creative space for image-makers, championing fresh talent in photography, fashion, music and graphic design.

This exhibition brings together the work of over 80 photographers, including Sheila Rock, Stéphane Sednaoui, Corinne Day, Norbert Schoerner, David Sims, Elaine Constantine and Sølve Sundsbø, and features over 200 photographs – a unique opportunity to see many of these images away from the magazine page for the first time.