“A man cradling a baby,” he said. “Could make a good image?”
I cringed. It wasn’t my kind of work. But Paul was asking, and I owed him my trust. So I took the brief, unaware that we were about to create something that would outlive us both.
A sepia toned monochrome image photographed in my London studio on 26 May 1986 of a male model cradling a newborn boy was unknowingly to become the biggest-selling poster in British history and was to represent the arrival of the sensitive but sexy "New Man". Forty years on, this is still something of an enigma to me. Perhaps that is the nature of iconic images. Impossible to predict or design, perhaps coming from a collective desire waiting to surface in a culture that demands its representation. An unconscious desire, perhaps in all three men, that met a cultural desire for this icon to be born and see die.
THE IMAGE THAT TOOK ON A LIFE OF ITS OWN
The shoot was unremarkable. Two rolls of film. Two angles. A set prepared the day before. Adam Perry, a model I had worked with before—brilliant on set but a nightmare to manage—was our man. A baby, Stavos, placed gently in his arms. The session was over in minutes.
When the contact sheets arrived, one image stood out. The only truly usable shot. We printed it. Moved on.
Then something happened...
A reprint. Then another. Then another. Athena had never seen anything like it. 100,000 copies sold. Then 500,000. A million. Then six. The image spread across Europe, then America. It was on book covers, watches, duvet covers. It was in every teenage bedroom. Every university dorm. Every suburban living room.
But even as the image took on a life of its own, the three men who had created it were quietly unraveling.
"It was the image of a generation. A man, cradling a newborn, his expression tender, his body strong. A contradiction. A paradox. A fantasy. It was, unknowingly, the defining image of a cultural shift—the arrival of the “New Man.” Sensitive yet masculine. Powerful yet nurturing.
It became the best-selling poster in British history. Six million copies. A commercial juggernaut. But behind the illusion of intimacy lay a far darker reality. Addiction, tragedy, and loss..."
"Athena is a British art retailer and retail chain, which was founded in 1964. Today it sells fine art prints from a variety of UK artists. However it is best known for its iconic posters such as L'Enfant, The Lord of the Rings from 1976 by Jimmy Cauty, the Tennis Girl poster from 1976 and "Beyond City Limits", published in the 1990s. The company's popular success divided opinion amongst intellectuals and art critics who were uncertain as to whether these works were too vulgar and populist to be considered art..."