FRONT AND REAR COVERS The
"portrait" photograph of Gary was taken by Peter Christopherson of the
London-based graphic arts company, Hipgnosis. In the 1970's Hipgnosis
produced many of the most famous album covers for the most famous
recording artists of the era. Gary Shearston was among them... Hipgnosis wrote about this photograph: "One
can make a portrait picture interesting by lighting alone... The
picture of Gary Shearston is one our better examples of the traditional
tungsten technique. In this case the light sources are spotlights very
like the ones used in theatres and on movie sets. Each of the lights
can be focused down to a very small area or flooded out wide to cover a
larger one. The final picture is made up of three or four different
lights shining directly, or reflecting indirectly, onto different areas
of the subject at various levels of intensity. Specific areas of the
face can be highlighted whilst others can be cast into shadow or lit
only dimly. Tungsten lighting is actually a craft all of its own and
whilst it often tends to give a somewhat dated feeling it is extremely
controllable. It is by no means always flattering but it certainly can
be very moody". Detail from the back cover of Dingo
| The
photographs (both front and back covers of the album) convey a great
sense of interest and detail (thanks to the tungsten lighting!),
enhanced, rather than diminished, by them being in black and white. The
book about Hipgnosis (details below) also contains this photo of Gary
taken for the Dingo project but not used on the album cover: From An ABC Of The Work of Hipgnosis: 'Walk Away Rene' (Storm Thorgerson), Paper Tiger (UK)/A&W Visual Library (USA), 1978. (c) GaryShearston.com (2000) |