87 cover stories in our archive
Behind the Covers' archive includes 87 album covers documented under the "photography" design theme, spanning the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s. These covers sit within the country, pop, r&b, hip-hop, soul, indie, electronic, rock, alternative, folk, world, funk, metal, punk, blues, jazz tradition and feature work by Zach Bryan, Tate McRae, The Weeknd, Tyler, the Creator and others. 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.
Zach Bryan kneels beside his Labrador retriever Bud Heavy Bryan by a reflective stream in lush woods, creating an intimate portrait that mirrors his rural Oklahoma roots and the album's themes of memory and place.
The artwork for McRae's chart-topping album was photographed in October 2025 with creative directors Ludovic de Saint Sernin and Ignacio Muñoz. Three days after release, McRae controversially swapped the original back-facing cover for a simpler front-facing version, later returning to the original design.
Tate McRae chose to pose with hockey knee pads painted with the album title as a tribute to her Calgary roots. The shoot was captured in October 2023, creating a striking visual of her standing over white goalie pads with blue lettering.
A grainy photograph of Bryan smoking a cigarette serves as the stark, minimalist cover for his breakthrough self-titled album. The intimate image perfectly captures the raw, authentic spirit of the country rock collection.
The debut album cover for Tate McRae's breakthrough record revealed alongside the album title on April 1, 2022. The artwork supported her emotionally raw debut exploring themes of growing up, heartbreak, and self-discovery.
Finnish brothers Anton and Aleksi Tammi created the brooding cover art - Anton photographed The Weeknd while Aleksi designed the custom typography. The bloodied portrait emerged from a cinematic vision inspired by Martin Scorsese's 1985 film of the same name.
Tyler in a platinum blonde wig, mint-green suit, and dark sunglasses against bright pink — introducing the lovesick alter ego 'Igor' and marking a dramatic departure from his earlier punk-rap visual identity toward retro-mod sophistication.
Solange art-directed minimalist photographs in warm earth tones celebrating Black womanhood with quiet dignity — centering natural hair as a statement about beauty standards, matching the album's themes of identity, racial justice, and self-care.
The blurred, green-tinted photograph with Ocean's hand partially covering his face reflects the album's core themes: memory, identity, sexual fluidity, and emotional opacity. The lo-fi, anti-commercial quality matched his decision to release independently.
The confrontational cover shows a group of Black men from Compton celebrating on the White House lawn, with a dead judge at their feet — a multi-layered commentary on Black success, systemic racism, and the tension between triumph and self-destruction.
Lady Gaga's polarizing motorcycle-fusion cover sparked immediate controversy with fans calling it a "cheap Photoshop job." Shot by Nick Knight with the Haus of Gaga team, the image merged Gaga's head and arms with a custom motorcycle called "Predator."
The debut album cover features a Polaroid photograph of a chandelier in St. Anthony Hall, a Columbia University semi-secret society, taken during one of the band's early campus performances.
A blurry, ghostly photograph of a hooded figure barely visible in darkness — like surveillance footage or a half-remembered dream. At release, the artist's identity was unknown, making the faceless cover a literal representation of musical anonymity.
The black-and-white portrait captures Winehouse's towering beehive, winged eyeliner, and an expression balancing glamour with haunted vulnerability — a deliberate homage to 1960s girl group aesthetics that matched the album's retro soul sound.
The cover features a blurry, candid photo of Arctic Monkeys' friend Chris McClure smoking in a nightclub, captured during their early Sheffield club days. This lo-fi snapshot perfectly embodied the band's working-class authenticity and DIY aesthetic.
The somber cover of an outstretched hand against a wintry background, framed by ornate borders, was inspired by the deaths of several band members' family members during recording — yet the album and its art are ultimately life-affirming.
The photograph hiding behind Jay-Z's iconic Black Album cover was actually taken two years earlier for The Blueprint, showing the rapper in a New York Jets jersey before being heavily edited into the ghostly, fading-to-black image that became one of hip-hop's most recognizable covers.
A fashion shoot gone legendary: Norwegian photographer Sølve Sundsbø's experimental 3D scan of a model became Coldplay's iconic 2002 cover after Chris Martin spotted it in Dazed & Confused magazine.
Sam Jones shot hundreds of photos of Chicago before Lawrence Azerrad found the perfect Marina City image. Azerrad removed neighboring buildings to focus on the twin towers, creating an iconic cover that fans now call the Wilco Towers.
The stark black and white photograph of a solitary figure in an empty hallway perfectly captured the alienation and urban loneliness at the heart of Interpol's debut. Shot with deliberate grain and shadow, it became an instant template for indie rock minimalism.
The Strokes' debut cover features a cropped intimate photograph that proved too provocative for American retailers, forcing the band to create an alternate version with abstract particle imagery for the US market.
The strict red-white-black palette extended to everything — instruments, clothing, stage design — creating one of the most effective branding exercises in rock history, born from genuine artistic conviction about how constraints force greater creativity.
A surreal dream vision of a swimming pool where water becomes sky, creating one of alternative rock's most memorable album covers through a groundbreaking digital collage.
Nick Knight's extreme close-up of a stag beetle — rendered with scientific precision in high contrast — is simultaneously beautiful and menacing, perfectly matching the album's dark, claustrophobic, paranoid atmosphere.
A provocative fisheye-lens photograph taken spontaneously at a Seattle condo during the album's recording sessions. The image of Lisa Hughes in a jacuzzi became one of the most iconic alternative metal covers of the 1990s.
Missy in a giant inflated garbage-bag suit shot with a fisheye lens — a radical rejection of the 'video vixen' aesthetic that defined female hip-hop imagery. The deliberately unflattering look was a power move: her talent would speak for itself.
Marc Baptiste's warm golden portrait of Badu in her signature towering headwrap — a spiritual and cultural statement, not a fashion choice — became the visual template for the neo-soul movement, countering the chrome-and-neon imagery of mainstream 1990s R&B.
Stéphane Sednaoui captured Björk radiating playful, extraterrestrial energy against vivid, high-saturation backgrounds — reflecting her eclectic sonic ambition that incorporated trip-hop, industrial, jazz, and electronic music.
The dual-image cover combines Morissette crouched on a Malibu cliff with a close-up portrait, enhanced by vivid reds, blues, and greens alongside typewriter-style fonts to capture the album's raw emotional intensity.
Four ordinary-looking guys standing against a flat blue background with no rock star posturing — the anti-cool, anti-glamour presentation was radical in early-1990s alternative rock and became a template for nerd identity in music.
The grainy, noir-ish photograph with a woman's face partially obscured in shadow creates an atmosphere of nocturnal melancholy — the purest visual expression of the 'Bristol Sound' aesthetic of dark, cinematic trip-hop.
A simple photograph of an infant against a white background creates extraordinary tension with the album's title — the child represents the starting point of a harrowing autobiographical narrative tracking life from birth through street violence and depression.
The living room belonged to guitarist Bonehead's house in Didsbury, and everything you see—from the TV to the champagne bottle—was meticulously arranged by designer Brian Cannon to create rock and roll's most perfectly cluttered domestic scene.
A childhood photograph of seven-year-old Nas superimposed via double exposure over a nighttime shot of the Queensbridge Houses — the ghostly overlay captures the collision between childhood innocence and adult reality that defines the album.
Candid moment captured by photographer Merri Cyr showing Buckley with eyes closed, listening to music while wearing a sequined thrift store jacket. Columbia executives initially rejected the intimate image, but Buckley fought to keep it.
The iconic greyhound racing image came from a sports photo library, shot by Bob Thomas at Romford Stadium in 1988. Designer Rob O'Connor sourced it after Blur explored London's working-class culture through betting shop imagery.
The cover features a monochrome photo of a star ornament from Miami's Sinbad Motel, shot by Michael Stipe himself. Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn provided additional band photos while art director Tom Recchion crafted the mysterious aesthetic.
Kurt Cobain's concept of a baby swimming underwater chasing a dollar bill on a fishhook became one of the defining images of the 1990s — a commentary on how humans are conditioned from birth to chase money.
The haunting cover of Slint's masterpiece was shot by musician Will Oldham at a local quarry, featuring the band members floating eerily in murky water. The image perfectly captures the album's unsettling atmosphere and became one of indie rock's most mysterious covers.
Dutch tattoo artist Henk Schiffmacher designed the tribal artwork while filmmaker Gus Van Sant shot the band portraits for this iconic alternative rock cover. The stylized tongues reaching toward a single rose merged body art culture with grunge aesthetics.
Anton Corbijn's arresting rose-and-leather photograph defied all expectations for electronic music packaging. The Dutch artist created Depeche Mode's most iconic cover by pairing delicate flowers with fetishistic black leather in a single provocative frame.
Created through layered Polaroid transparencies, projections and re-photographing, this ethereal cover features Robert Smith's face dissolving into swirling textures. The analog technique captured the album's themes of disintegration and emotional drift.
The iconic panoramic street corner shot was captured by Jeremy Shatan but credited to Nathanial Hornblower, Adam Yauch's pseudonym. The fictional Paul's Boutique sign was hung over Lee's Sportswear for the shoot.
Simon Larbalestier's heavily manipulated photograph of a macaque — distorted through multiple exposures and analog techniques — captures the Pixies' surrealist sensibility, connecting to the album's themes of nature, primitivism, and the relationship between humans and animals.
Photographed at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley, this iconic black-and-white cover emerged from a December 1986 desert road trip. Designer Steve Averill framed the band cinematically against the stark landscape, while the actual Joshua tree photos ended up on the back cover.
The cover features Paul Simon standing casually against Elvis Presley's famous Graceland mansion gates, creating an audacious visual connection between two American music legends. The simple snapshot aesthetic belied the album's groundbreaking fusion of American folk and South African sounds.
Annie Leibovitz shot Springsteen from behind facing an American flag — jeans, white t-shirt, red cap in pocket matching the flag's colors. The deliberate ambiguity mirrors the title track: a protest song widely misread as a patriotic anthem.
Prince on a custom purple motorcycle, bathed in purple light and smoke, wearing a sequined jacket — the image that cemented purple as his personal brand. After his death in 2016, Pantone created a custom shade called 'Love Symbol #2' in his honor.
A stark black pentagram on matte cover sparked Christian outrage and landed Motley Crue on ABC News. Photographer Barry Levine conceived the controversial design that defined 1980s metal rebellion.
The iconic cover features Jackson in a white suit borrowed from photographer Dick Zimmerman himself during the July 22, 1982 shoot. A baby tiger cub was brought in to help the camera-shy star relax, though the animal appears only in the gatefold version.
The striking cover photograph by Glen Christensen captures Tom Petty with an enigmatic intensity that mirrors the album's defiant spirit. Art directed by Tommy Steele and designed by Stan Evenson, the image perfectly embodies the breakthrough record that took the Heartbreakers from critical darlings to mainstream stars.
Pennie Smith captured bassist Paul Simonon smashing his Fender Precision Bass on stage — a slightly out-of-focus shot she didn't want used, but the band declared it the only possible cover. The typography deliberately mimics Elvis Presley's debut album.
Frank Stefanko's stark portrait of Springsteen in his Haddonfield bedroom captures the album's raw, desperate mood. Shot against flowery wallpaper in winter 1978, the image strips away celebrity artifice to reveal the working-class character at the heart of the songs.
The theatrical cover photo of Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks — him holding a crystal ball, her in flowing chiffon — masks the emotional chaos behind the scenes, where every romantic relationship in the band was simultaneously falling apart.
The iconic portrait of Seger on the Night Moves cover was shot by Bay City native Tom Bert, who previously photographed Neil Diamond and would later win a Grammy for his Silver Bullet Band inner sleeve photography on Against the Wind.
The iconic debut cover shows four leather-clad punks against a brick wall in New York's East Village, shot by Punk magazine photographer Roberta Bayley for just $125. Originally taken for a magazine feature, the image became punk's visual blueprint after Sire Records rejected a Beatles-inspired concept shoot.
Robert Mapplethorpe's photograph of Smith — jacket over shoulder, no makeup, androgynous confidence — demolished gendered expectations for female musicians. It has been called the greatest rock and roll portrait ever taken.
Shot by Hope Powell and art directed by Herb Burnette, this cover introduced a glamorous new look for Dolly. The soft-focus portrait features teased blonde hair and marked Parton's transition into solo stardom.
Brian Duffy's photograph of Bowie with Pierre LaRoche's red and blue lightning bolt painted across his face became the single most recognizable image associated with David Bowie — a visual icon of fractured identity and glam rock.
An accidental yellow-tinted photograph of prison convicts caught in a spotlight became one of rock's most iconic covers. Shot at a Georgian estate, it features Wings and celebrities including Christopher Lee, Michael Parkinson, and James Coburn as escaped prisoners.
Shot on a rainy London night outside K. West furriers shop, this iconic image almost never happened - the original concept was completely different. Photographer Brian Ward captured Bowie in his full Ziggy regalia under moody street lighting, creating one of rock's most atmospheric covers.
Marc Bolan's iconic top-hatted portrait sparked one of rock's greatest photo credit controversies. The grainy black-and-white image became accidentally legendary when an eager darkroom technician mishandled the developing chemicals.
The close-up of Mitchell's face bathed in monochromatic blue transforms a portrait into an emotional statement — her sadness and longing literally coloring everything. She described making the album as feeling 'like a cellophane wrapper on a cigarette pack.'
The landmark 1971 album that made Loretta Lynn a country icon features her signature autobiographical title track. Record World praised the "pretty cover, pretty singing, pretty girl" while Billboard called it a "great package" with distinctive country flavor.
The iconic cover features McLean's thumb painted in red, white and blue against an American flag backdrop. Photographer George S. Whiteman created this patriotic image that became as memorable as the album's epic title track.
A Black woman's face emerging from earth — mouth open in a scream or ecstatic cry — matches the primal intensity of Eddie Hazel's legendary guitar solo, recorded in a single take under the influence of LSD.
A candid band photo taken by Bob Fogerty shows CCR in an off-duty moment, complete with a handwritten 3RD GENERATION sign - a cheeky response to critic Ralph Gleason's dismissive review. The uncool, lumberjack aesthetic perfectly captured their working-class appeal.
The iconic American Beauty cover features a rose surrounded by ambigram lettering that also reads 'American Reality.' Created by the legendary Kelley/Mouse Studios duo, it ranked 63rd on Rolling Stone's best album covers list.
A mysterious cloaked figure before a 15th-century watermill, photographed with color-inverted film that transforms a picturesque English countryside into something genuinely evil — released on Friday the 13th, the album essentially invented heavy metal.
Keith Macmillan's War Pigs concept became iconic mismatch when label changed album title to Paranoid last-minute. Roger Brown posed as the fluorescent warrior in Black Park for heavy metal's most confusing cover.
Milton Glaser's arresting cover design paired striking typography with Allen Vogel's intense portrait of Van Zandt. Glaser explained his goal was provoking people's interest to ask 'What the hell is that?'
The most famous pedestrian crossing in history was captured in just six shots during a 10-minute photo session. Photographer Iain Macmillan stood on a stepladder in the middle of London traffic while a policeman held back cars, creating an image that would spawn conspiracy theories and pilgrimages for decades.
George Hardie transformed Sam Shere's iconic 1937 Hindenburg disaster photograph into a haunting stipple illustration using a technical pen, creating one of rock's most powerful visual statements for just £60.
The stark close-up of Cash's intense gaze captured the raw authenticity of his legendary prison performance. Jim Marshall was the only official photographer present at the historic January 13, 1968 concert.
Jimi Hendrix's double album sparked international controversy with its provocative cover featuring 19 nude women photographed by David Montgomery. The image was so scandalous that many countries banned it, forcing alternative covers to be created for different markets.
The Rolling Stones' return to their blues roots sparked a six-month delay when both UK and US record labels rejected Barry Feinstein's original toilet cover art, forcing a controversial compromise.
The concept was born from Paul McCartney's idea that the Beatles would become an entirely fictional band. The cover depicts the band in colorful satin military uniforms standing in front of a crowd of life-size cardboard cutouts of famous figures.
Karl Ferris pioneered the use of infrared film for album art, creating an otherworldly image where the band appears in unnatural purple, orange, and green hues through a fisheye lens — as if Hendrix had literally arrived from another dimension.
Jerry Schatzberg's powerful portrait of Aretha Franklin, shot on February 16, 1967, captures the emergence of the Queen of Soul. The intimate photo shoot in New York crystallized her newfound artistic freedom.
Cream's debut album features one of rock's most enigmatic covers - a stark black and white photograph of three mysterious figures that perfectly captured the band's dark, blues-heavy sound before anyone knew what a supergroup looked like.
The iconic photo of The Beach Boys feeding goats at San Diego Zoo was shot by Capitol Records staff photographer George Jerman. The band's visit on February 10 or 13, 1966, was reportedly so chaotic that zoo officials banned them for life.
Don Hunstein's photograph of a 21-year-old Dylan walking arm-in-arm with girlfriend Suze Rotolo down a snowy Greenwich Village street defined the visual template for singer-songwriter culture: intimate, urban, unpretentious, romantic.
One of the most infamous album covers ever created, featuring a 12-foot plywood Satan cutout designed by Ira Louvin and burning kerosene-soaked tires in a rock quarry. The brothers nearly got burned during the photo shoot when kerosene-soaked rocks exploded.
Francis Wolff's pensive photograph of Coltrane, cropped and designed by Reid Miles, became one of jazz's most iconic album covers. The minimalist Blue Note aesthetic perfectly matched the introspective masterpiece within.
Chuck Berry's debut album features a striking cover image taken from his performance in the 1956 film Rock, Rock, Rock! The still shot shows Berry with his guitar slung in front of him, capturing the raw energy of early rock and roll.
The debut album's cover features a striking black-and-white close-up photograph of Little Richard against a bright yellow background. Billboard praised the "striking" cover art upon its 1957 release, helping establish the visual identity of rock and roll's most flamboyant pioneer.
Elvis Presley's debut album features a groundbreaking cover photo taken by William V. "Red" Robertson at a Tampa armory in 1955. The bold pink and green typography over the dynamic black-and-white performance shot created rock's first iconic album cover.