THE CHANGING FACE OF THE MODERN GENTLEMAN - PART TWO

I got the second instalment of 'The Changing Face Of The Modern Gentleman' off to print yesterday, which was really great. The second paper focuses on the flip-side of the notion of a gentleman, looking at gentlemen's clubs and magazines. The paper is narrated by a man called Vivian Henderson...

THE CRAWL OF HACKNEY - VIVIAN HENDERSON

For the next section of the new instalment of the modern gentleman newspaper I have been looking at Gentlemen's Clubs throughout London, however I had five clubs in mind but changed them at the last minute so that they are all in hackney. I did this after looking at some articles I found the other day...

THE LADIES OF THE GENTLEMEN

Today I have been making some important decisions about images and layout of the second instalment of the modern gentleman newspaper. I have been deciding on photos to use within the paper, and picking them out of a growing collection of vintage photos that I have been gathering...

ROBERTA PEDON

Roberta Pedon, was the stage name of the famous seventies glamour model, back then I guess it was all hippy's and free love, but Pedon was at the forefront of the men's magazines girls. Because she was young, pretty, with a spectacular large-breasted figure, Pedon's photographs frequently appeared in gentlemen's...

PIN UP GIRLS

I have been thinking about pin up girls, and how there was or still maybe is a trend for this pin up movement. A pin-up girl, also known as a pin-up model, is a model whose mass-produced pictures see wide appeal as popular culture. Pin-ups are intended for informal display, e.g. meant to be "pinned-up" on a wall. Pin-up girls may be glamor models, fashion models, and actresses. The pin up link is another thing that I want running through my work, but in using old vintage pin up girls and their photos I want to breathe new life in to them, and abstracting them into something different. All current and old lads mag's or the ones that are called gentleman's magazines feature these pin up style girls, and within the double page spread of my newspaper that is what I want to replicate.

GENTLEMAN

Another vintage magazine that includes the word gentleman, in fact that is the only word within the title, again similar to 'modern man' magazine, it was one of the first men's magazine with a broad range of subjects. supposedly there is an interesting article about stuff you didn't know about shaving, riveting.

MODERN MAN - THE ADULTS PICTURE MAGAZINE

Modern Man was a men's magazine founded in 1952, which apparently ran for several decades, I guess it was the first proper men's magazine similar to ones we see now, such as NUTS, FHM and GQ, with all the same subjects within it such as humour, cars, pop culture and of course nude women.

THE GENT MAGAZINE

Just found this vintage magazine called 'The Gent' which came out in the late fifties and has had many issues since. Its crazy how you can see the design change and the cover models get more bare as the years roll on. The website I found them has a whole archive of vintage mens mags and other stuff...

NIKA MOVENKA SPUN

Here we have Nika Movenka, a big bust model from the early seventies. Who appeared in many gentleman's magazines within her time. I decided on this photo due to the composition of her and the way I have put the circles. Again mirroring that of a pole dancer, spinning round the pole...

STRIPPER FOR CHRIST - TEDDY FERIS

I was just randomly looking for books on amazon, when I came across Teddy Ferris's book, 'Stripper For Christ - A Hermit Goes to The Gentleman's Club' It is a book designed for the kindle, but using my trusty iPhone I downloaded the short story for the sum of seventy pence, sat outside and read it. It was a pretty short story, about a guy who has never gone to a strip bar or gentleman's club, and his friend takes him, where he meets a stripper called 'Ginger', who he basically falls in love with, however Ginger is a stripper with a difference as she is a christian and follows it quite strictly, she then basically gets his number and seems to really like him too. It wasn't gripping but some of the words he was using for the look of inside the club were interesting, and how the place smelt and looked, and the clientele who were in there, sort of what you'd imagine really. An interesting insight to it.

GENTLEMAN'S CLUB SHORTLIST

With a minor knowledge of strip bars in London (mainly east London) and equipped with the trusty gentlemen's navigator app I went about putting a short list together of gentlemen's clubs around the area. All with the gentleman's club title within them. The list is as follows,

WHITES GENTLEMAN'S CLUB

NAGS HEAD GENTLEMAN'S CLUB

THE WHITE HORSE GENTLEMAN'S CLUB

THE GRIFFIN GENTLEMAN'S CLUB

LE RIFIFI GENTLEMAN'S CLUB

All these are sort of pubs, that have ladies dancing around in them, and all feature the gentleman's club accolade within the name of them. Here is a map that I have done to show where the bars are.

GENTLEMAN'S CLUB MAP

GENTLEMAN'S NAVIGATOR

This morning I have started my search for gentleman's clubs in London, which will be hand picked by the infamous Vivian Henderson. I am basically trying to get the low end clubs, not places like Spearmint Rhino and Stringfellows, because this is more of a tourist attraction, where as some of the pubs and bars I am looking at are places you wouldn't want to go near, and that is where the real 'gentlemen' are. Its strange because I have never actually been to a strip club of any description, and don't have any interest in going, however it fascinates me that some men go every night? Anyhow that is something else to think about. I was however trawling through lots of amazingly awful websites for these places most of which look like they were either done by a child in powerpoint, or done about 15 years ago. Or you typical glossy, 'suave' style website. I did stumble across an iPhone app however which helped me sift through all the questionable websites, the app is called GENTLEMEN'S NAVIGATOR (check out the weird blurred photo behind it, of some business meeting, what's that about?) and does exactly what you'd expect, find lots of clubs, pubs, bars, massage parlous and more gentlemanly delights. Whoever thought this up is one crazy gentleman, it has proved to be very helpful though, so I cant complain. I have slowly complied a list of some of the grubbiest looking pubs and bars to get a list together for Mr Henderson to give his views on.

SPUN TWO

I have been experimenting further over the last day with different mediums of image making, as for now I am going have a few sections within the newspaper, and one of the sections shall utilise images made from images i am producing now. This section is going to be connected to gentleman's magazines...

VIVIAN HENDERSON

The name of my gentleman whom will be the narrator for the next volume of the modern gentleman is called Vivian Henderson. This is a made up character, who is going to embody the person that is the flip side of a gentleman. The name is built up from two people who are a big influence on the gentleman club scene. This is firstly 'Laura Henderson' who I have mentioned on the blog before. Henderson was the founder of the Windmill Theatre in London, which was the first club in Britain to display nude women. So if you like she is the founder of british strip shows. The second names comes from 'Vivian Vann Damm' who was the manager of the Windmill club alongside Laura Henderson. Without these two pioneers gentleman's clubs may never have made it to Britain (although im sure they would have done). Anyway this is the conception of VIVIAN HENDERSON, more to come from him soon.

GORDON MAGNIN

LA based artist Gordon Magnin is another current artist that uses the medium of collage and cut-outs. Creating collages using appropriated photographic images, Magnin challenges the intended "intended objective, interpretation, and significance" of our daily diet of celebrity, advertising, and consumer based images...

SPUN

I am looking at different ways of experiments through the medium of collage and cut-outs I found this guy called Gordon Magnin who is a very interesting artist who is focusing on the collage theme, who inspired me to try out some new methods. I have basically got the image I wanted to use and cut out a various part of it...

AMIE DICKE

Amie Dickie is an artist from Holland. She has many different styles within her work however the one that has really interested me is her cut-outs. She has an amazing way of altering a photo just by cutting certain pieces out from it. I was reading a interview with her talking about the motives behind her cut-outs...

STRIPPER STRIPPED THREE

Here is another experiment for the Modern Gentleman newspaper part two. I have included a blank piece of paper, which is black. Indicating the blank patches that lie within this made up person, and the image itself. I could also use it to have text in it or other such things. I feel the graphic shapes within the image work well...

STRIPPER STRIPPED TWO

I really like this idea of refraction and pieces built together to make a new abstract form. I think its relevant to the work in the way that a lot of these gentleman's magazines and clubs are very private, with the fronts of shops that sell magazines and the clubs themselves being covered over and censored...

PAZAR TURKISH GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE

Just typed into google gentleman's magazine, and one of the photos that came up was this, its called PAZAR and is a Turkish Gentleman's magazine. The design of the front cover is actually quite sophisticated in a way, like something you'd see like Vogue or Harper's Bazaar or a magazine of that style...