In the 1980s and 90s this pioneering magazine was a hub for subcultures, but in today’s digital landscape trends are followed rather than set

I still remember the first copy of the Face magazine I bought at age 14. It was the January 1984 issue, with model and pop-rock singer Nick Kamen on the cover, in a ski cap. As a young kid, I bought magazines weekly, starting with Look-in, a preteen music and television magazine, followed by the brightly coloured teen bible Smash Hits and then the Face, the last two founded by Nick Logan. The Face was like a cool, older teenager who invited you into a sexy new world where fashion, music and design fused to create a revolutionary culture. As a young Black gay man, that invitation meant everything.

This truly was the heyday of magazines, as I was reminded when visiting The Face Magazine: Culture Shift at the National Portrait Gallery last week. I was moved to see all of the magazine covers and spreads that I had collected and hung up on the walls in my youth. There was a particular image of the Kiss FM crew in their studio with Norman Jay, Gordon Mac and Paul “Trouble” Anderson, DJs whom I had loved and followed. When I was 16 and had left school, the Face opened a window into London’s arts, music, clubbing, queer and fashion scene, which took me out of my small world in south London and allowed me to aspire to something different. Beyond the capital’s walls, the magazine introduced me to the emerging house music scene in Chicago and New York, and foreign-language films.