//John Maybury, Crowndale Road, c. 1981. Photo © David Gwinnutt//

//Leigh Bowery, Farrell House, Stepney Green, c. 1983. Photo © David Gwinnutt//

I am one of the guests of the photographer David Gwinnutt at an event being staged next month to coincide with the opening of his forthcoming exhibition at London’s National Portrait Gallery.

Before We Were Men showcases Gwinnutt’s documentation – with hand-held camera and exclusive use of natural light –  of creative London in the 1980s. Among his subjects were the designer/performance artist Leigh Bowery, artists Cerith Wyn Evans, Duggie Fields, Gilbert & George and Grayson Perry and dancer/choreographer Michael Clark.

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Tags: Before We Were Men, Cerith Wyn Evans, David Gwinnutt, Derek Jarman, Grayson Perry, Ian Massey, Jeffrey Hinton, John Maybury, Margaret Thatcher, Michael Clark, National Portrait Gallery

//Siouxsie Sioux, 42 Arlington Square, N1, 1982. © David Gwinnutt//

//”This was taken in hospital when she had the brain tumour but oddly seems to reflect the end of that heroin chic period.” The late photographer Corinne Day, Whitechapel Hospital, east London, 1996. © David Gwinnutt//

//Timberlina, east London 2009. © David Gwinnutt//

Photographer David Gwinnutt’s new show Portraits Trouvés at north London estate agency Currell provides documentation of the drastic transformation of our city through portraiture of some of the leading lights in arts and culture from the 80s to the 10s.

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Tags: Andrew Logan, B2, Corinne Day, Currell, Gilbert & George, Grayson Perry, Jonnny Woo, Leigh Bowery, Michael Clark, Neil Bartlett, Norman Rosenthal, Rhyannon, Robert Mapplethorpe, Ryan Styles, Ted Walker, Timberlina, Trojan

//David Holah in Solitude, directed by John Maybury. 11mins, 1981//

One of the choice selections to be screened as part of this month’s post-punk film season This Is Now is Solitude, the 1981 John Maybury short featuring David Holah, then a fashion student, soon to launch the era-defining label Bodymap with Stevie Stewart.

Put together by British Film Institute curator William Fowler, This Is Now is on at London’s South Bank and explores the early 80s explosion in DIY creativity in this field among UK art students, clubbers, New Romantics and members of the post-punk scene, all of whom embraced inexpensive domestic technology such as VHS and Super 8 to make often bold and uncompromising statements.

//Holah in Solitude//

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Tags: BFI, Bodymap, Cerith Wyn Evans, David Holah, Derek Jarman, Don Letts, George Barber, Grayson Perry, Isaac Julien, Jennifer Binnie, Kim Flitcroft, Lux Moving Image, Michael Clark, Mike Mansfield, Princess Julia, Sandra Goldbacher, Sophie Muller, Steve Barron, Stevie Stewart, The Duvet Brothers, This Is Now, Tim Pope, William Fowler