LAW

Make it Happen Written for LAW 3, 2013 This came as a riso insert inside Issue 3, I drew 15 kisses in a triangle on every copy, like the secret Valentines cards you would get at school. I’d always be frantically doing something completely unnecessary but absolutely vital like this 5 minutes before a launch. Which for LAW 3 was an infamous night at the original @goodhood store on Coronet Street. Followed by the first outing of our club night - Joyride in @troybarofficial on Hoxton Street. One of the last great independent bars in the area that would become our spiritual home for New Years Eve parties over the next few years. Some real OG’s on this contents list, people I’ve come to kno & really truly love ❤️ Forgive the spelling mistakes I was learning on the job, think of it as an apprentice bricklayers wall. It seems my pride burned a lot brighter in 2013. RIP Lewis Seymour who loved LAW. See you again on the dance floor my friend 🌹

2023 @d_and_ad award for LAW Issue 10. Just try to get something done. Take care, have fun. Special thanks to Jeremy Leslie @magculture for the encouragement and to all contributors for your excellence 🌹🕊️💫 Editor @johnjosephholt Design and typefaces @allpurpose.studio Assistant Editor @saramerkenschlager

Images taken at ‘Material Power’ an exhibition exploring the evolution of Palestinian embroidery over the last 75 years @kettlesyard Cambridge. The exhibition has now moved to @whitworthart in Manchester and is open until 7th April 2024. Palestinian resistance is magnificent. Ceasefire NOW and forever. Free glorious Palestine 🌹🇵🇸🕊️

Some prematch portraits from our trip to the cup final with supersonic @sarahstedeford 💫 Some stand outs include Kieron with his shirt over a jumper, blue jeans, black 95’s and a Ferguson scarf with True Red on it. Never truer. Rashid with his Bromley FC jacket over his Man United crest and Finley with his Inter Milan shirt over his United shirt, a sly dig at City before the Champions League final. It didn’t work. Not a bad morning’s haul, before being removed from the premises by some overzealous @wembleystadium security. Photography @sarahstedeford Casting @johnjosephholt Assistant @annalisakarina #facupfinal #lancashiretakeover 🌹⚽️🌹⚽️🌹

A @mitresports football has been the centrepiece of the centre circle since my first foray onto the hallowed turf of Ely Paradise Centre as a 7-year-old midfield maestro. Earlier this year LAW and @mitresports went to the @emiratesfacup final with @sarahstedeford to shoot a zine documenting the pre-match euphoria of @mancity v @manchesterunited fans, the first time the two Manchester clubs had met in the final of the world’s oldest club competition. The digital copy is available to download now via the link in our bio. Portraits by @sarahstedeford Casting by @johnjosephholt Design by @allpurpose.studio Photography Assistant @annalisakarina

Whilst banging super Jeremy Leslie’s drum… I @johnjosephholt went on the @magculture podcast to talk about the very beginnings of LAW, why Issue 10 took five years to make and had to feel the way it did. There’s a few snippets here, but listen to the full version on your lunch break or when you’re working late, nodding off or dishing up via the link in our bio. The LAW segment begins at 10:45 🌹🕊️💫

Thank you to Jeremy Leslie for making LAW 10 the first @magculture ‘Magazine of the Month’, which coincidentally shares the same acronym as ‘Man of the Match’. So here’s my MOTM trophy from Benny’s memorial match in 2007. If there’s one man in the stands who’s been banging LAW’s drum it’s Jeremy Leslie AKA THE VOICE on magazines. Thank you for taking the time to dissect LAW 10 and understand what we set out to achieve. You can read Jeremy’s write up via the link in our bio. Go visit MagCulture whenever you’re in London and God Bless Benny Newton, the best left back that ever lived 🌹❤️🕊️

I @johnjosephholt was recently commissioned to write and record a poem about modern Britain for @channel4 to soundtrack 25 incredible new idents by some of the most exciting directors of our time - who drunk it, sunk it, fell in love with it and set it on fire. Eternal thanks to the magnificent @lynseyatkin @mikeskrag @artpractice.studio @lovesongfilms for giving me the best platform to let some beating words leap off my chest ❤️ ‘The Island Life’ by @johnjosephholt was broadcast on Channel 4 at 6.55pm on Wednesday 14th June 2023. Long live @channel4 🌹🕊️

This week marked 1 year since my dad passed away. He was a magnificent man ❤️🕊️ I was in the Turbine Hall at Offprint due to give a talk when my sister phoned to say there had been complications with dads biopsy and I should go to the hospital right away. He was initially given 6 months to live, but was gone in 2 weeks. Shortly afterwards my mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and she is slipping through our fingers and we can’t seem to stem the tide, but I am not ready to say goodbye. I just wanted to explain the silence, as communication has been difficult. You question the significance of everything when those that you thought would be around forever, suddenly disappear. Life is like a train track, sometimes you’re going to go through tunnels and it’s going to go black. This last year has been one long tunnel but I am beginning to see the light and I wanted to let you know that LAW has not gone anywhere - it will be around forever, at least as long as I am here. This image is from LAW 10, the portraits were taken in our lounge at home by my dear friend @jackrjohnstone if you’ve ever met Jack you’ll kno the love he would give to a leaf or a ladybird and realise why I wanted him to shoot the subjects I care about the most. Mum is wearing an outfit by my BN1 classmate, my class mate @sadiewilliams_studio because my mum and I have always been enthralled by Sadie’s work and the queen of my heart needed a shining crown. My dad is wearing the kind of Windsor Knott he would tie to push a trolley round B&Q, it’s tru they don’t make em like they used to. The numbers on his lapel allude to his Lancastrian past and the numbers that farmers would wear showing Herdwick sheep or Belted Galloway cattle in the shadow of Kilnsey Crag. The boarder is made from lino cut from our utility room floor, which I have been walking on since I was a child. I asked my mum what she would say to young people and inscribed it around the edge in Tippex that can’t be Tippexed out. Her strength inspires me everyday. I’ll try to post a bit more regularly from here on in, but whatever you do, “NEVER STOP BELIEVING” and make sure you enjoy the view out of the window when you can.

We will be at @offprint_projects this coming weekend @tate modern in da turbine hall selling copies of issue 10, archive issues & misc merch at cut price prices. We will also be doing a talk on the Sunday @ 11:40am about the journey of LAW and designing LAW 10 with our friends @allpurpose.studio Offprint London is free and open: Fri 13th May, 2pm - 6pm Sat 14th, 10am - 6pm Sun 15th, 10am - 6pm Hope to see you there 🌹🕊 #lawmag #livesandworks #LAWBIG10 #offprint #tatemodern

Thank you to Luke & Dan from @bdf_gather for inviting me to talk in Birmingham and thank you to everyone that was there, your words mean more than u kno u kno. That was for Naomi 🕊 Image 1, Plasterboard Portrait of Georgia shot outside the Bullring in Birmingham for LAW 5, 2015. Image 2, me and bruv ‘on set’ shooting Plasterboard Portraits for LAW 1 on London Road in Brighton, 2010. There’s nothing middling about The Midlands 💘

LAW 10 dove for Gary For Andrew For Judy For George For my bruv For your love And all those up above 🕊 Destiny & The Dove 2021 - eternity Issue 10 set free Listened and cried to this song a lot whilst making the magazine, somehow it takes you closer to the feeling of longing for something you cannot touch. #lawmag #livesandworks #offtherichterscale