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The image a generation grew up with

On 26 May 1986, in Spencer Rowell’s London studio, a sepia-toned monochrome photograph was taken of a male model cradling a newborn baby. No one present could have known it would become the best-selling poster in British history, or come to define the arrival of a new cultural archetype: the sensitive yet sexy “New Man”.

Forty years on, its enduring appeal remains something of an enigma.

It sold more than five million copies. In 2011, it entered the permanent print collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum. L’Enfant - often known as Man & Baby - became Athena’s most reproduced image.

The Art Director with Vision - Paul Rodriguez

L’Enfant was one of many iconic and instantly recognisable images to emerge from the creative partnership between photographer Spencer Rowell and art director Paul Rodriguez.

When Paul Rodriguez arrived at Athena as Art Director in 1984, the brand felt tired and outdated. He recognised something others had yet to articulate: that photography could be emotional, aspirational and deeply personal. He trusted images to speak for people - expressing identity, desire and selfhood without words.

His collaboration with Spencer Rowell reshaped Athena’s visual language and helped redefine the role of photography in British culture.

This relaunch stands as a tribute to Paul Rodriguez and the vision that changed Athena.

The Photographer

Black-and-white photography in the mid-1980s marked a pivotal moment in art and popular culture. Spencer Rowell’s work both reflected and shaped evolving ideas around masculinity and sensitivity at a time of cultural transition.

Early campaigns for Lee Jeans and Le Coq Sportif first brought his work to Athena’s attention. But Rowell’s images were more than aesthetic objects; they carried mood, emotion and psychological depth - photographs that seemed to speak on behalf of their viewers.

For more than fifty years, Spencer Rowell has used the camera as a tool of communication. Alongside his photographic practice, he is also a psychoanalytic psychotherapist. In 2022, he was nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, placing his work firmly within the contemporary fine-art conversation.

The Athena Years

For many, a first meaningful encounter with photography happened not in museums, but on bedroom walls. At a time when photography was still finding its place between commercial and fine art, Athena occupied a unique position on Britain’s High Streets throughout the 1980s.

Existing in a space between gallery and shop, Athena brought high-quality photographic prints into people’s homes - making art photography accessible, affordable and personal to a wider audience.

Forty years on, Athena brings this work back to life - produced to the same standard for those who grew up with it, and for a generation experiencing it for the first time.

The Remastered Classics - 25

Twenty-five Athena-era images a generation grew up with, reissued and remastered to gallery standard. Featuring L’Enfant, the BodyLine series, Sensitivity, Castaway, Animal Magnetism and more.

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The Unseen - 25

Twenty-five photographs from the same period - 1980 to 1989, the decade that produced L’Enfant - published here for the first time, forty years on. Spencer titles them by year alone; the restraint is the work.

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The exhibition Spencer Rowell presents The Athena 1980s Collection & Other Works shown at the Westminster Bank Building, 53 High Street, Ramsgate, returned the work to the very High Street where it began. This collection now makes those photographs available to a wider audience for the first time.

View the 40th Anniversary Collection