125 IS PRICELESS

OK, not quite priceless but 125 is now officially a collectors item having just sold one of our highly sought-after copies of issue #1 for the princely sum of One Hundred Pounds.
Yes, you heard right: £100.
Hey, don't look so surprised, we always knew it was worth it, just cast your mind back to this article in The Telegraph in which Simon Finch, rare book dealer to the stars proudly shows off his collection of early 125's.
Now get over to the 125 Online Shop and snap up some collectors items.

VB TAKES A BUS

Never let it be said that Victoria Beckham is not a woman of the people; in order to keep in touch with her working class routes she occasionally hops on the number 19 bus to Sloane Street for a spot of shopping. Dont believe us? Watch the new ad for her autumn line and you'll notice one of the girls hanging out at a bus stop, we've done our research and on the other side of the street, in the exact position that VB appears at the end of the film is another stop. What else could she be doing there?

Oi, THATS MINE

The infringement of photographers copyright is a hot topic (in small photographer based circles) so the New York chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers is trying to inform the public about this slow erosion of their rights. To make their point they commissioned ad agency
Gigantic to make a viral video but something tells me that the 'clever analogy' wasnt fully thought through in this slightly silly ad. Call me a thief but orphaned photo's propped up in the street are fair game. If thats how New York photographers are treating their work no wonder people are nicking it. Better luck next time ASMPNY.

DONT GIVE 'EM AN INCH

Interviewing David Bailey isn't easy, here's a sneak preview taken from the new issue of 125 (on-sale in October).........

125: So, you're seen as somewhat of an elder statesman of photog...
DB: 'No! You're wrong! Completely wrong!'
125: You have a substantial legacy tho...
DB: 'I don't care about that.'
125: In the early days...
DB: 'I don't want to talk about the early days. I can give you a book to read about the early days.'
125: OK, sure.
DB: 'You'll have to read it now though. They're all precious books.'
125: So what would you like to talk about?
DB: 'What I did yesterday.'
125: OK. What did you do yesterday?
DB: (To assistant): 'Matt, what did I do yesterday?'

AMERICAN APPAREL PAINTERS

Forget Posh Plumbers and Naked Cleaners, there's a saucy new service from American Apparel called Girly Decorators. They can work in a selection of outfits of your choosing, the decorator pictured here is wearing the ever popular striped knee-high sock/nylon spandex mini dress/black cotton spandex panty combo. But we highly recommend the nylon spandex long sleeve mini dress.
Unfortunately options on the decorating side are much more limited with a choice of paint colours ranging from black to dark black. Additionally staff are only trained to paint black over black which limits there versatility, but who cares, if we have to stare at a painters ass-crack all day we'd rather it was this one.

WE'VE ALL BEEN THERE

TV soaps are generally set in places we can all relate to - hospitals, neighborhood streets, etc, etc. But with Bupa and high-rise city living disconnecting us from one and other we now relate less with those common idylls, so here's a soap set in a place we all know and love. IKEA. Its the future of TV and you know it. Filmed secretly in an open Ikea its the ultimate guerrilla film making. Or is it the ultimate guerrilla marketing?
Watch Here.

THE BEST OF. . . . US!

The best of 125 (according to F.TAPE at least).

SONY BRAVIA: 177 YEARS IN THE MAKING

The previous post mentioned image appropriation, something which happens in all areas of the visual industry. The fact is that we all see the same references everyday on the TV, in magazines, art galleries and on the web, so the chances are that your influences are also someone elses.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Hokusai
1832
















Uprisings, Kozyndan
2003






















Sony Bravia, Play-Doh.



Kozyndan also produced this series of panoramic bunny prints, draw your own conclusions.
Bunnies (detail) 2003

MISAPPROPRIATION

A serendipitous piece of street postering popped up this week to prove 125 right on a recent argument about the power of an image to sell literally anything. . . . our angle is this: people just want a hook, a little thing to differentiate between the millions of almost identical products being shoved in our faces every day. Just imagine how many people have gone to buy a new TV and asked for the one that comes with a giant Play-Doh rabbit?
A memorable image will sell anything, and Diane Arbus' Identical Twins as gig flyer is a perfect example - proved by the fact that this was the first time we'd ever stopped to find out what was on at that particular venue. It does however seem a little harsh to use the '10th most expensive photograph of 2004' for such basic use, but image appropriation is nothing new.
And to prove that point the next post will be a visual history of the Sony Play-Doh Rabbit.

A HARD DAYS NIGHT

Hi Mom,
Thanks for sending me that box of Oreo's, I swear these English dudes don't know what a cookie is.
Anyway i'm in London tonight with the band, easiest job I ever had, I just turn 4 red lights on at the back of the stage and then sit here with my laptop for the whole gig sending emails. I'm doing it right now.
See you soon, say hi to Dad.
Fred x

The above message was transcribed from the picture above using sophisticated photographic technology during the Soulsavers gig at the Garage in London last night. The lighting dude literally pushed one fader up to max at the beginning of the gig and then faded it off again at the end.
He did at least make a pretense of working between songs when his finger hovered over the aforementioned fader presumably in anticipation of some impromptu ad libbing that might require a dramatic change in mood. It never happened.
Great gig though, gravely voiced spirituals never sounded so good, not sure why the backing singers were banished to the back of the venue though.
Note to self: don't stand by lighting desk in future, all that activity was very distracting.

HARD TIMES FOR LEIBOVITZ & FAMILY

In recent weeks we've started to notice a change in the general mood of the industry towards the recession, with a new optimism beginning to appear in conversation. But we've also a noticed a slightly mean spirited attitude to those having a bit of a hard time with quite a few comments calling the current situation a 'cull' and a 'clearing of the deadwood'.
In a climate like this it often seems that clients commissioning photography suddenly start to let accountants make creative decisions, going for the cheapest option rather than the best artist for the job, the result of this can be seen in ad campaigns around the world at the moment with some very dubious creative decisions being made. The fact is that talented photographers know the value of their work and (rightly) aren't willing to sell it for less. This recession will eventually fizzle out, but once you've set your stall out in a flea market its very hard to move back into Harrods.
But what happens if you hold out against dropping rates and stand up for your art? The worst case scenario seems to be happening to a number of photographers right now, the most high profile example being Annie Leibovitz who New York Magazine recently revealed to have a $24 million debt. Of course Leibovitz is partly to blame for this situation have spent decades recklessly losing money, but its the current lack of work (for which she allegedly charges $250'000 a day) that has brought the situation to a head.
Slightly lower down the scale are Markus Klinko and Indrani, the highly respected photographic duo behind a number of iconic fashion a portrait campaigns who have recently filed for bankruptcy in New York with combined debts somewhere around $5 million.
However, in a rare piece of good/hopeful news London's Metro newspaper reported yesterday that the recession will be all over in 40 days, so perhaps we just need to hang on for a bit longer.
Phew, that was a bit serious, more nonsense blog posts coming soon.
Photo: Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange, 1936.

K1000 & THE GANG

125's editor in chuff is a passionate campaigner for photographic education, frequently lecturing young female students on the benefits of learning the art on an old manual device before moving onto modern battery operated gadgets.
So imagine his joy as he passed a group of girls in Soho yesterday all sporting Pentax K1000's, clearly these girls were on their first assignment as photography students and had been given the classic cameras by a teacher who knows his onions. But what we really like is how cool these girls look with their retro bodies, we think its time to reintroduce the classic 35mm SLR as a fashion accessory, we'll be getting on eBay later today to snap up all the Nikon FM2's, Canon F1's and Olympus OM1's that we can find. And just like the one-upmanship between women over their designer handbags we are already predicting those with the cash and the style will be sporting Leica M3's, Vintage Pen's, Rolleiflex's and maybe even a Box Brownie or two, you know Lady Gaga's all over that idea.

VPL

Gone are the days of a visible panty line being the most embarrassing fashion crime a girl about town could commit. In a visual version of hip-hop slang where bad means good, this girl is experimenting with the idea that if a VPL is bad then in fashionable London it must be good, and should be pushed to the nth degree.
And no, she is not a page 3 stunna, she didnt pose for the roving 125 photographer she's just a happy fashion girl enjoying a night out on the tiles.

VICE CHANGES COOL RULE?

Everyone knows that its cool to be fashionably late, or so you thought. Tonight was the private view of Vice Magazine's annual exhibition at the print space, doors officially opened at 7pm, so as we passed the venue at 6pm on the way back from a power lunch we were amused/bemused to see a queue of scruffy hipsters waiting to get in.
125 HQ decamped to the venue a little later in the evening wondering if we needed a new copy of Debrett's Etiquette for Girls, fearful of the fact that we were now both woefully late and woefully uncool.
But fear not readers, it turns out that we are cooler than a glass of sparkling perry on a midsummers day: the reason the hoards were there so early is because they knew that the only hospitality on offer was a plastic cup of pear cider, and it takes a lot more than that for 125 to appreciate such a dubious collection of bedroom pornography. Ooooh, bitchy.
We soon moved on to more saloubrious surroundings.

BIG RANK

Last night was the private view of Rankin's gigantic retrospective exhibition at the Truman Brewery, East London. We go to a lot of exhibitions but this is definitely the biggest space devoted to one man's work that we have ever seen. Literally 22'000 square feet of Rankin, from art college to the present.
However, our highlight was bumping into 80 year old supermodel Dafne Selfe, on the way in. Dafne was the cover star of 125 #5 shot by Perry Curties, so we spent the evening catching up and trying to avoid talking about all the pictures of penis' and boob's.
Picture-taking in the exhibition was vigorously discouraged but we did manage to snatch a quick shot of Dafne in front of her rather saucy portrait before a moody female guard ran over to stop us. We quickly pointed out exactly who she was dealing with, and she retreated with a confused look on her face as she realised she was being told off by the sexy old lady in the picture.

THE END OF THE WORLD IS NIGH

The giant branch of Borders in Oxford Street, central London, is probably the biggest magazine shop in the UK and perhaps Europe, but look, its dead. They are closing down 10 of their biggest stores in what must be an indication of the true state of the publishing world.
An industry insider tells us that bargain fashion brand 'New Look' offered the Borders group £1million for the remainder of the lease but that doesnt explain the other 9 store closures.
Whats the world coming to.....

STOP, THIEF!

We know that 125 is good, but now we know just how good. Our local newsagent, Lucky's, has recently been the victim of a heinous crime against photography/fashion/art & culture, namely the theft of their last copy of 125. Perhaps its a sign of the recession finally hitting the super cool intelligentsia but c'mon chaps, if we start stealing from each other we'll be no better than the fat people reading OK Magazine in bus shelters all over this land.
However, we have taken a positive from this, just take a look at all the magazines the thief chose not to steal, you cant deny his good taste.

TECHIE TALK

We all have an inner geek, a little man (or woman) inside who, when at a bar with his friends, is hidden away by football talk, shoe shopping ideas, or just inebriation. But we know that sat at the laptop or working on a new project the geeky little insider pops his head above the parapet and is secretly fascinated by all the clever visual ideas popping up on the interweb.
Well finally someone (Dom O'Brien), has trawled the web on our behalf with this top-notch little blog that features the best and most interesting new visual ideas and technologies.
Our favorite so far is Julius Popp's pipes in the picture above, see it in action about halfway down this page.

Dom O'Brien's Innovation Blog

GET HIM!

We were sinking a few mai tai's up at SDH last night, as per usual, when who should turn up but all of bloody Hollywood. Yep, Quentin and Co. suddenly realised that east london is the new west london, so as soon as the film stopped running at the premier of Inglorious Basterrrrds they all jumped on a sight seeing bus and gate crashed our night out.
We are not bothered in the least by celebrities and generally avoid them when they try to steal our cool, but on this particular occasion one of our tall northern art directors (who shall remain nameless) came over all faint and skipped off to schmooooze.
He returned some considerable time later to regail us all with tales of celebrity and stardom, and in particular an exchange with Rihanna (and her umberella-ella) on the stairs where she apparently smiled and winked at him. Wow.
Needless to say, we're pretty sure it was the tall northern art director doing all the winking, but you've got to give a boy his dreams, just as long as nobody points out that he's old enough to be her Dad.

FIXED WHEELERS

As anyone who's anyone knows, single-speed fixed wheel racers are the shit (in a hip hop sense). These days no self respecting Shoreditch dude goes anywhere without risking life and limb on an almost unstoppable track bike, so occasionally an event occurs that see's a cluster of fashionable faux cycle couriers congregate in their cleated shoes, and last night it was at the aftershow party for Mike Blabac's exhibition of skate photography at Maverik/The Owl & Pussycat.
At first we thought that the skateboarder/fixed wheel gangs might end up in a sullen teenage version of a West Side Story gang fight but it turns out that when skateboarders grow up they become fixed wheel cyclists, and they all got on like a house on fire. So, no, this picture does not represent the aftermath of a fixed wheel gang fight. Shame.

WEAR 125

125's Gary Harvey was recently asked to contribute to the launch of Love in the Sky at the ICA with a piece of art to be exhibited alongside work by people such as Goldi, Leah Wood, Johnny Blue Eyes and others. Being our fashion director Gary decided to make a piece of wearable art out of 125 Magazine covers and very nice it was too.

The exhibition and auction at the ICA in London served as a launchpad for Love in the Sky, a competition open to people around the world to enter an image that 'captures the true meaning of love'. Entries will be displayed alongside work by famous artists online, in exhibition and even on the London Underground.

MAKE ART NOT WAR

One of the nicest, friendliest little coffee shops in the whole of East London is Leila's shop in Calvert Avenue just down from 125 HQ. Leila has been largely responsible for the rejuvenation of this little corner of town and ran the campaign to renovate the infamous bandstand at the end of the street that is a landmark of the area. So why would anyone try to smash her windows? You cant quite make out the smashed glass in the iPhone picture but we are pleased that even a nasty little act like this has been turned into an interesting graphic statement.

BEAUTY NEWS

Oi, darlin' you are not at home. There are at least 40 people not enjoying the spectacle of you dropping blackened face wipes all about your person on a busy tube home. Did you apply the slap in an equally public fashion on the way into work this morning or is the removal just for our pleasure? Ive got an itch that needs scratching but I'll wait until I'm in a more private locale.
Give it a rest.

A CLEAN SLATE

A blank flat-plan is both exciting, refreshing and unbelievably daunting.
OK, we only do 2 issues a year but each one is a book, a collectors item and a bible for creatives, art collectors, designers and other magazines around the world. That's a lot of responsibility on our busy shoulders.
Over the next few weeks we'll gradually start adding pages and this time around we'll keep taking a pictures of the plan to let you see how it grows, so come back and check the progress in a couple of weeks (assuming theres been any).

Click here to see what the new theme is.

THANKS MIKE

The only thing better than a meeting with a great brand that gets what 125 is all about, is a meeting with a great brand that makes sure you leave wearing better sneaks than you arrived in.

BACKLASH

For a while now there has been a bit of a debate about street artists becoming actual artists; do they devalue their work in doing so? Are they selling out or just responding to demand? A couple of years ago in New York there were a spate of 'splashings' - street artists splattering paint over the work of other artists who had moved off the street and into the gallery.
So when Banksy's secret exhibition was unveiled at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery on Friday we couldnt help wondering how long it would take the street to start disowning their former champion.
Answer: 24 hours. Graffiti artists in Londons east end have always shown nuff respec to Banksy's numerous pieces around the town, being the man responsible for legitimizing their craft (in the eyes of the public atleast) but it seems the dream is over. This is the first of Banksy's pieces weve seen attacked by his former comrades, so its safe to say he aint street no more.
View the exhibition here.

TARA

We paid a visit to Tara Darby's [125 #2 & #4] exhibition last night, she was putting on an exhibition of work entitled 'We Are Only Humans' at the fantastic Reeves paint factory in Dalston. It was an eclectic audience but we particularly liked this bitch...
(More info on Tara's blog here)

INKY FINGERS

We love the Mac, Photoshop and all those gizmo's but sometimes you want to get down and dirty with some ink and paper so this week we closed the 125 HQ for an afternoon and went screen printing at Print Club London. The results were up and down but the experience of thinking in analogue rather than digital was a welcome change and we highly recommend it.
This is corporate team building 125 Styleee. If you're wondering why the 125 member pictured above is pixelated, its because he was slightly embarrassed with the quality of his output.

PORTFOLIOS

For a while now Le Book have had a bit of a monopoly on the creative-industry-trade-fair-business, which, as exciting as it sounds, is actually quite important to the photography/styling world.
So given that the biznis is in a bit of turmoil at the moment its probably a good idea that Creative Review have started up their own rival event. The first one took place in Westminster on Wednesday and despite the tube strike looked like a good first event. As you can see from the picture our creative director was enthralled.
Watch out Le Book, there's a new kid in town.

NEVER TOUCH ANOTHER MANS STEEL

The inaugural use of a traditional Japanese saw is a special moment between man and tool. The ceremony is usually meant to take place in an Okiya (Geisha house) with a 3 hour tea sipping procedure building up to the initial pull of the steel against wood - its always a pull rather than a thrust due to the fact that Japanese saws only work in one direction.
Unfortunately we couldn't find an Okiya in London town so we reenacted the ceremony with a 3 hour lager-sipping ceremony followed by the first blow being taken on the bar of the lucky hostilery to host the event.
It looks great but surely a saw that ony works in one direction means twice the work?

LOZZA

Lawrence Watson, photographer and friend of 125 has a great exhibition at the LondoNewcastle gallery (28 Redcurch St, East London). Every two-bit music photographer thinks they can put on a retrospective of their work and people will be enthralled, but Laurence really does have a back catalogue of work, a who's-who of the greatest British musicians of the last 20 years, and you only keep working in that industry for that length of time by being a good guy, which he is.

Ends: 16th June.
The big story for us though was the impromtu after-show party that we managed to help engineer back at Angelo & Bridget's Maverik gallery. Laurence is a great kisser.
You had to be there really.

Oi Oi. . . .

Whats all this then? Some grubby students must have liked our Bloc Party campaign so much that they decided to re-enact it.
Bloody students.

T-SHIRT KING CROSSES STREET

Proof if ever it were needed that fame and fortune still dont prevent your feet from touching the scummy earth that lesser mortals have to tread.
No, you're eyes do not deceive you, this is a picture of Henry Holland, T-Shirt impresario and supermodel BFF not hanging out with Agnes, Pixie, Jefferson or Katie.
OK not the best picture, but one is an artist, not a paparazzi. Next on our list of minor fashionistas to catch on terra firma are regular faces on the Shoreditch turf - Giles Deacon, and the bag lady of Calvert Avenue (Ally Cappellino).

ARMED WITH SELLOTAPE, CONSIDER DANGEROUSLY LITIGIOUS.

We're still in Paris, quaffing vats of red wine and scoffing whole wheels of Camembert, which was quite nice until we spotted this fella sticking up rather scurrilous notices about the editor of French Vogue. We decided to look into this allegation (from a purely journalistic point of view) and we think its safe to say that its unfounded - this bloke may well be a nutter. Also, if anyone knows who Elizabeth Gracen is let us know, she sounds like a right bitch.
The views expressed in this blog entry are those of Chris Hepburn (or the bald man in the picture if that isn't Chris) and in no way represent the thoughts or feelings of 125 Magazine and its staff who are all 100% certain that Carine Roitfeld is a bonafide lady, we've never heard of Elizabeth Gracen and can therefore only rely on the evidence presented by the crazy bald man but assume that she's probably quite a nice person once you get to know her.

MOTION

Click here to see Megan move.
OK, you're reading these posts backwards, so you don't yet know that we like the idea of moving photographic images, you will when you read the next one down. But this is another example of the way new toys are letting us merge photography and film-making, with Megan Fox on the cover of US Esquire by Greg Williams. This was shot with the Red One apparently.

SLO-MO

Click here to see the jelly wobble.
As anyone who's read the editors letter in the new issue of 125 will know, moving images are the future, so we have been looking at the new technology around at the moment that allows a photographer to become a film maker, the Canon 5d being a good example.
The idea that we can create still but very slightly moving images is quite interesting (to the editor anyway), so this new thing called a SprintCam got our interest - the link shows quite a long clip but there's something poetic about this jelly.
OK, so this isnt a camera for the amateur and you cant print a frame of the footage from this like you can with the Red One but it is interesting, isn't it?

COLETTE

We're in Paris this week eating snails and frogs legs and spouting ridiculous cultural generalizations. One of our favorite shops here (and therefore Europe) is Colette so we had to pop in and see how the new issue of 125 looks on "le shelf Francais". The answer is cooool (pronounced Queuuuul).

We had a bit of trouble with the manager who doesn't like people taking pictures and not buying stuff, but as soon as we told him who the hell we were he relaxed and exclaimed "eet iz a very good magazine, I av selected it for the colette website"
Queuuuul.

ARSE ACHE

Were a photography magazine run partly by photographers. We take a lot of pictures and like cameras, so why don't we go down to our mate Billy's studio for a demonstration of the brand new Phase One digital back?
I'll tell you why - its boring.
125 lasted 30 minutes of the 3 hour event before the arse ache got too much, we'll be buying another very expensive digital back, but will expect a discount for getting wedged between a load of wedding photographers for 29 minutes longer than necessary.

PIZZA

We like the Print Space and the service they provide, and we often pop along to the private views of their exhibitions. Now, we're not saying that the LPA FUTURES exhibition we went to last night wasn't interesting, but . . . . our only real memory of the occasion was the constant stream of scooter drivers who turned up literally every 30 seconds with another 10 pizza's.
We salute the credit crunch catering, but this picture only represents the very tip of the greasy cardboard mountain that built up.

THE MORNING AFTER THE NIGHT BEFORE

A better writer would come up with something teary and heartfelt about dreams dashed on the hard rocks of ambition but im just thinking about the expenses...

ANOTHER FIRST THURSDAY

We're really getting into the swing of the First Thursday thing and the warmer it gets the better the event seems to become. Last night we started at our usual haunt (The OaP) where we observed the masses ignoring our posters before taking in a few of the Redchurch Street galleries. This week the super cool met the super corporate in an art face-off.

On the left of the street was Wildcat Will's shabby boxes of ephemera at the Nue Gallery - the epitome of East London, anti-corporate, shabby-chic coolness (a gallery just a little bigger than a shoebox, painted completely black and rarely open).
Directly opposite was a slightly more conspicuous multi coloured double-decker bus customized by Peter Blake to promote his new book with an exhibition thrown in at the Mother advertising agency's new gallery across the street. Only in this little enclave of London would you find such an hilarious display of corporate sponsorship (Blake/Mother/CocaCola) next to such desperately cool art hipsters.
After all that mocking we headed off to Brick Lane's Bohdi Gallery to see the work of the Print Club, a screen printing club which runs classes and workshops for anyone who fancies getting a bit inky. This show featured 50 of their more talented members and seemed to be selling like hot cakes.The 125 team are planning on taking some classes so expect some 125 T-shirts any day now...