--- title: Preserving Pop Culture, with James Hyman of HYMAG description: With a Guinness World Record for the largest magazine collection, James Hyman’s HYMAG archive is going digital. Browse in a high-res, searchable format - only on PastView. image: https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/hubfs/PastView%20x%20HYMAG.jpg --- [![PastView-Logo-Tagline-4](https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/hs-fs/hubfs/pastview-logo-layered-2023-bold.png?width=1024&height=267&name=pastview-logo-layered-2023-bold.png)](http://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/) [![PastViewLogo-Black](https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/hubfs/PastViewLogo-Black.png)](http://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/) - [Features](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/features/) - [Manage](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/features/management/) - [Publish](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/features/publishing) - [Share](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/features/sharing) - [Design](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/website-design/) - Ingest - Built For - Communities - [Cultural Heritage](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/built-for/cultural-heritage/) - [Government](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/built-for/government) - [Industry](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/built-for/industry) - [Military](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/built-for/military/) - [Materials](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/materials) - [Bound Volumes](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/materials#bound-volumes) - [Documents](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/materials#documents) - [Photos](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/materials#photos) - [Audio Visual](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/materials#audio-visual) - [Born Digital](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/materials#born-digital) - [View all Materials](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/materials) - [Our Work](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/our-work/) - Resources - [Blog](https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/pastview) - [Case Studies](https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/pastview/tag/case-studies) - [Advice & Resources](https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/pastview/tag/advice-and-resources) - [Latest PastView News](https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/pastview/tag/latest-pastview-news) - [PastView Community](https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/pastview/community) - [Events](https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/pastview/tag/event) - [About](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/about) - [About PastView](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/about) - [Meet the Team](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/about#team) - [Partners](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/about#partners) - [Careers](https://www.townswebarchiving.com/careers/) - [Getting Started](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/getting-started) - [Contact](https://www.townswebarchiving.com/contact) - [Get in Touch](https://www.townswebarchiving.com/careers/) - [Request a Demo](https://meetings.hubspot.com/cs20/internalexternal-meeting-link) - [Pricing](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/pricing) [CALCULATE MY INVESTMENT](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/pricing/access-calculator/) [![clear-logo](https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/hs-fs/hubfs/raw_assets/public/Marketplace/webdew/Clear_-_Blog_Listing/Images/clear-logo.png?width=94&height=41&name=clear-logo.png "clear-logo")](https://www.webdew.com/clear/home) - Menu Item 1 - Sub-menu Item 1 - Another Item - Sub-menu Item 2 - Menu Item 2 - Yet Another Item - Menu Item 3 - Menu Item 4 # PastView Blog Find out more about Digital Access & Discovery   [< Back to the blog](https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/pastview) # Preserving Pop Culture, with James Hyman of HYMAG Written by [Paul Marks](https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/pastview/author/paul-marks) July 29, 2025 at 8:45 AM ![PastView x HYMAG](https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/hs-fs/hubfs/PastView%20x%20HYMAG.jpg?width=2000&name=PastView%20x%20HYMAG.jpg "PastView x HYMAG") # Preserving Pop Culture. HYMAG Goes Digital with PastView.       James Hyman is a name synonymous with pop culture preservation. With a career that began in the heyday of MTV Europe during the 1990s, James has spent decades immersed in the worlds of music, media, and youth culture. As a producer, programmer, and presenter at MTV, he helped shape the channel’s content at a time when it was defining the visual language of a generation. But while James was curating content on-screen, he was also building something much larger behind the scenes: a vast and meticulously organised archive of magazines, spanning everything from mainstream fashion titles and music publications to niche underground press. What began as a personal interest quickly evolved into a professional mission. Recognising the cultural significance of print media, especially as the digital age accelerated, James began acquiring and cataloguing materials that captured moments in time. His goal is to preserve and champion the voices, visuals, and trends that have shaped modern history. This lifelong commitment has earned James a [Guinness World Record](https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-collection-of-magazines) for the largest collection of magazines in the world - over 50,000 individual magazines and counting. His archive, known as HYMAG, is now one of the most comprehensive and diverse collections of printed popular culture ever assembled. And now, that archive is entering a new phase.   ![PastView x HYMAG](https://2351684.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/2351684/hubfs/PastView%20x%20HYMAG.jpg?width=1200&length=1200&name=PastView%20x%20HYMAG.jpg) Video with James Hyman. ### A New Digital Chapter with PastView James’ commitment to preserving printed culture has always gone hand in hand with a desire to make it accessible. That’s why we’re excited to be working with him on the next stage of the HYMAG journey: bringing the archive online through [PastView](http://www.pastview.com), our digital access and discovery platform. The first milestone is making the entire run of [The Face](https://theface.com/) magazine available to search, explore, and enjoy online. Spanning May 1980 to May 2004, this remarkable collection captures 283 issues of the legendary magazine across three volumes. Often referred to as the style bible of its time, The Face was much more than a fashion magazine - it was a cultural touchstone. Covering music, film, photography, nightlife, and youth identity from 1980 to 2004, it shaped the tone of generations and launched the careers of now-iconic creatives. By digitising and publishing this influential title on PastView, we’re not only safeguarding its legacy but opening it up for researchers, educators, and fans around the world. This is just the beginning. The long-term goal is to digitise and publish the full HYMAG collection - a treasure trove of printed history - on PastView. As we work through this monumental archive, piece by piece, we’ll be enabling unprecedented access to materials that would otherwise remain tucked away in boxes and storage units. ### Why PastView?   For a collection as vast and eclectic as HYMAG, discoverability is everything. That’s where PastView comes in. Our platform has been designed not just to house digitised material, but to make it searchable, navigable, and meaningfully accessible. With advanced text recognition, users can find specific references instantly - whether it’s a celebrity name, a fashion trend, or a pivotal moment in cultural history. Deep-zoom functionality allows for detailed exploration of imagery, while our immersive Book Explorer offers a near-tactile experience, letting you flip through digital pages as if holding the magazine in your hands.   As James puts it: > *“With PastView, the world's largest magazine collection is now at your fingertips. No time is wasted in your research requests - type in a search and highly relevant results are delivered in seconds. It frees up time to explore and reflect on what you discover.”*   This level of precision and speed is transformative for researchers, creatives, students, and culture lovers alike. What was once a painstaking process of sifting through physical archives for inspiration or information, is now a streamlined, enjoyable experience. The Face is just the beginning. With every new title we bring online, PastView becomes a richer portal into the cultural evolution of the past four decades of fashion, music, style and politics. By partnering with James Hyman and the HYMAG team, we’re not just digitising magazines, we’re preserving cultural memory and making it available to anyone, anywhere. Whether you're a designer seeking inspiration, a researcher uncovering hidden narratives, or simply someone fascinated by the evolution of style, media, and identity, this growing digital archive is for you. With The Face now live and more titles on the way, this marks an exciting new era for pop culture preservation - powered by PastView.   You can access the complete collection of The Face magazine here: [https://archive.hymag.com](https://archive.hymag.com)   [< Back to the blog](https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/pastview) - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) ## Keep up to date Sign up to our newsletter and be the first to know about the latest access & discovery news and updates. ![PastViewLogo-Black](https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/hs-fs/hubfs/PastViewLogo-Black.png?width=220&name=PastViewLogo-Black.png) ## Quick Links - [About PastView](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/about) - [Our Work](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/our-work/) - [Events](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/events/) - [PastView Community](https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/pastview/community) - [Contact](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/contact) ## Built For - [Cultural Heritage](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/buil-for/cultural-heritage) - [Government](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/buil-for/government) - [Industry](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/buil-for/industry) - [Materials](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/buil-for/materials) ## Get in touch - The Barn, Rothwell Grange Farm, Rothwell Rd, Kettering, NN16 8XF - 01536 713834 - hello@townswebarchiving.com - - [Cookie Policy](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/cookie-policy/) - [Terms & Conditions](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/terms-conditions/) - [Privacy Policy](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/privacy-policy-2/) - [Site Map](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/wp-sitemap.xml) - [Browser Support](https://pastview.townswebarchiving.com/browser-support-standard/) © TownsWeb Archiving 2023, all rights reservered ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Paul Marks", "url" : "https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/pastview/author/paul-marks" }, "dateModified" : "2025-07-29T08:30:09.272Z", "datePublished" : "2025-07-29T07:45:00.000Z", "headline" : "Preserving Pop Culture, with James Hyman of HYMAG", "image" : [ "https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/hubfs/PastView%20x%20HYMAG.jpg" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/pastview/preserving-pop-culture-with-james-hyman-of-hymag", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://blog.townswebarchiving.com/hubfs/TWA%20-%20PV%20Logos.png" }, "name" : "TownsWeb Archiving" } } ```