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Coming Soon: Vinyl
Sometimes, simply taking a photo, and making an image, is not enough; sometimes, the picture cries out for more. Sometimes, they want a life of their own—and what could be more glamorous than being an album cover?
Whether on a classical, punk, pop, or jazz record, album covers in some sense embody the spirit of their music. When I was a kid, just getting into music myself, I had a hard time trying to find “my music,” because I had had a very narrow exposure to music, and that was usually focused on classical. But then I discovered rock, and found myself drawn to that like a moth to flame. But as a young kid heavily into drawing, with very limited exposure to most genres, the only tangible aspect of an album I could connect with, was its cover—if a cover really resonated with me, I would (reluctantly) part with what seemed like huge chunks of my pocket money, and buy that album.
For this project, I’m taking images that I think would look good on a cover—even if they weren’t shot in a square format—and then I’ll spend some time with them to see what genre they suggest. Once I have that, I’ll invent an artist—a band, singer/songwriter, orchestra—and a backstory, that I’ll write out as liner notes for that fictitious album. Naturally, I’ll also come up with a label! For classical albums, the music will be genuine, but the performers will be invented; usually with some kind of inside joke or reference, such as having Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder appear on the fictional Sans Souci label…
In parallel, I am writing and designing a book in which all these covers & stories will be collected, as the catalog for an exhibition of record sleeves for albums that were never recorded by artists who don’t exist… It will be up to the viewer to decide what kind of music they’re looking at; if they’re curious, there will be liner notes to browse.