3 cover stories in our archive
Behind the Covers' archive includes 3 album covers documented under the "album cover photography" design theme, all from the 1970s. These covers sit within the punk, pop, rock, alternative tradition and feature work by The Slits, Joe Jackson, Television. Each entry below includes the cover artwork, the designers and photographers behind it, and a short story about the visual choices that defined the release.
In a Surrey rose garden, the Slits covered themselves in mud and faced Pennie Smith's camera like warriors. Their debut album Cut turned a photograph of three women refusing the usual rules of femininity into one of punk's most confrontational sleeves.
Brian Griffin photographed Joe Jackson's new white shoes almost as an afterthought during a day of portraits. A shaft of sunlight on London's South Bank turned the five-minute shot into Look Sharp!'s famous cover—and Jackson reportedly hated that his face had disappeared from his own debut sleeve.
Robert Mapplethorpe photographed Television, but a Times Square color copier gave Marquee Moon its uncanny look. The story of the band's 1977 debut sleeve is one of New York art, chance and four musicians who refused to fit a familiar mold.