THE FACE, once the smartest magazine in the world, is about to die. I don't have any information about the intentions of emap, the publisher giant, and there are plenty of ads in the last issue, so this is not a financial death, only an editorial one.

How can one knows a magazine is dying? First of all, the editor hasn't resigned in protest over a disturbing surge in infomercials from the worst kind. In the November issue, for example, they have a so-so portfolio of Macaulay Culkin by Terry Richardson, a great portfolio of Asia Argento by Ellen Von unwerth, and then they have dozens of ads thinly disguised as editorial portfolios. Sometimes it bears the headline "Promotion", even not "emap promotion". And sometimes it looks like a The Face editorial, but it's an Orange Cellphone editorial. And nobody is going to tell you if the editors choose the pics, or if Orange's marketing directors did.

A more interesting sign of the ethical downturn at The Face is a fashion editorial in the August issue one can only call pure pornography. It involves Lucy Brooker, a relatively new model at IMG. It's one of her first apperances, and it's probably the last.

I hesitated to upload the pics, although this humble weblog is on a European server, but all of a sudden there are all over the net, so let's not be hypocrite. The best scans are at theseventh.com, choose "open navigator" then "models" then her name (special thx Iris). Easier navigation at ThePlace.ru (special thx alejandro), where the infamous four pics were uploaded as well. The rest are pay sites, porn sites (yes) or AVS sites, and that tells the whole story.