This story originally appeared in i-D’s 40th Anniversary Issue, no. 361, Winter 2020. Order your copy here.
i-D has always been a family affair. And beyond Terry and Tricia Jones and their children, the magazine’s second family might be the Lebons — Mark and his sons Frank and Tyrone. Who as three photographers across two generations have published work in every one of i-D’s four decades of existence. From Mark shooting a then-unknown Madonna for the cover in 1984 to Tyrone capturing Lily McMenamy in 2015, they’ve helped define the visual energy of this magazine’s pages. For The 40th Anniversary Issue – and fresh from being shot by Juergen Teller in a tribute to their friend Judy Blame – Mark and Tyrone pulled together some unseen imagery from themselves and their friends Takashi Homma, Jason Evans and Nigel Shafran to celebrate 40 years of your favourite fashion magazine.
Tyrone Lebon
You basically grew up with i-D, with your dad being one of the family. What’s your earliest memory of the magazine?
I remember going into the office on Tottenham Court Road with my dad a few times. My impression as a kid was that there was always a fight to be won. I didn’t understand at the time but now I see he was arguing about the layouts of his pictures.
Mark Lebon
You defined i-D visually for almost a decade at the beginning of the magazine’s history. How does it feel looking back on that time now? Overwhelming.
These images of Nick became quite iconic. Did it feel like it when you were making it?
It was before men in skirts became a thing. I used to wear a sarong before David Beckham knew what a sarong was, and it was nice to get that skirt moment in print. It was before anyone was thinking about Buffalo, it was my styling idea that Ray really took on – the cut-off jean jacket over a dinner jacket – but then Ray made it iconic. I loved Nick from the moment I saw him and Ray came round to liking him too. It was one of my first full pages.
Jason Evans
Can you tell us the story behind this image included here?
This was from my second story as a photographer and it was Edward Enninful’s first story as stylist. Issue 95, August 1991. We had met when he modelled for my first story, which he did the casting for too. I was reading Toni Morrison, Zora Neale Hurston and Jess Mowry around that time, all African American authors, and yet I couldn’t ever remember seeing a photograph of a Black person reading. The story was called Slashers and had to do with re-located Dancehall-style customisation. A lot of my work pushed back at stereotypes. It seemed like a smart use of fashion photography and the editorial system.
Takashi Homma
Can you tell us about this image?
It’s a 91-92 New Year’s Eve party at Trade at Turnmills.
Nigel Shafran
Do you have an abiding memory of i-D at the time?
I remember one time Terry Jones coming up to the flat where I lived in Golders Green needing to find a cover pretty quickly. I did some photos of Aure Atika winking for the cover, but we ended up using one from an older session and I remember printing the photograph then and there in my darkroom which, at the time was in my bathroom, and showing the wet prints to Terry. The funny thing is, in the picture that was used for the cover, Aure doesn’t have an eye closed if you look carefully. It’s just printed darker, so it might be one of the only i-D covers without a wink.
