79 cover stories in our archive
Behind the Covers' archive includes 79 album covers documented under the "portrait" design theme, spanning the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, 2020s. These covers sit within the hip-hop, rock, country, r&b, pop, metal, blues, reggae, alternative, soul, funk, electronic, folk, indie, punk, jazz tradition and feature work by Mac Miller, Madvillain, Tyler, The Creator, Bo Diddley 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.
A painted portrait of Mac Miller by Alim Smith became the centerpiece for this posthumous album's Grammy-nominated package, designed by Portuguese artist Bráulio Amado. Miller commissioned the artwork in 2016 for this experimental 2014 recording.
A stark grayscale portrait of MF DOOM in his metal mask, shot at Stones Throw's LA house and designed by Jeff Jank. The minimal composition features a distinctive orange square accent.
Tyler, The Creator's album cover for CHROMAKOPIA captures the theatrics of 1950s film noir with its sepia-toned imagery. The masked rapper, photographed by Luis Perez, conjures classic Hollywood glamour while concealing his identity behind a specially crafted ceramic mask.
Chess Records assembled this debut album from Bo Diddley's early singles, capturing the foundational Bo Diddley beat. The cover shows Diddley holding his Gretsch G6131T Jet guitar in a striking portrait by photographer Chuck Stewart.
Morgan Wallen's courtroom sketch-inspired cover transforms legal trouble into art, creating an unprecedented album aesthetic that toes the line between accountability and artistic statement.
SZA transforms into a shimmering insect creature for this deluxe reissue cover, shot by Cassidy Meyers. The bug persona originated from her Hot Ones appearance where she quipped about being 'tired of not being a bug.'
Photographed by Dave Free with lighting direction by Eduardo Silva, the stark black-and-white cover shows Kendrick posed with his 1987 Buick Grand National Experimental. The minimalist composition reflects pgLang's creative direction, connecting Lamar's birth year to automotive legacy.
Carpenter's sixth studio album cover sparked controversy for its resemblance to a 2015 French magazine photo featuring model Tiffany Collier photographed by Bruno Juminer.
Shot entirely underwater in a 20x20x10 foot heated tank, the cover depicts Eilish submerged in deep blue water, creating visual tension between soft intimacy and hard environment. The seven-hour shoot required Eilish to hold her breath for extended periods without breathing equipment.
Israeli artist Roy Nachum created a photorealistic painting of young Rihanna holding a black balloon with a crown covering her eyes, overlaid with Braille poetry by Chloe Mitchell - making it the first album cover to incorporate physical Braille for accessibility.
Taylor Swift's tenth album features ethereal blue-purple gradient portraits by photographer Beth Garrabrant, shot on film to capture the nocturnal aesthetic of Swift's sleepless nights concept album.
A striking black-and-white portrait shows Swift with newspaper-style text covering half her face, embodying her transformation from country sweetheart to defiant pop star after public controversies.
A Polaroid-style portrait crops Swift's face below her eyes, creating mystery about the album's emotional content. The photography duo Lowfield shot over 400 Polaroid photographs for the project.
Ozzy's solo debut cover features the Prince of Darkness clutching crosses in a dramatic studio portrait that launched his post-Sabbath reinvention. Shot by Fin Costello at Metropolitan Wharf in London's Wapping district, the theatrical imagery perfectly captured the album's dark comic book aesthetic.
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.
Released in 1961 without any known photos of Johnson, Columbia commissioned artist Burt Goldblatt to paint a faceless musician in field clothes. The overhead view painting became an iconic blues cover that influenced a generation of rock musicians.
The iconic album cover for this reggae soundtrack featured artwork by John Bryant and sleeve design by London's CCS Associates. Bryant's vibrant illustration depicts Jimmy Cliff with dual pistols, using hand-drawn typography rendered in Bottleneck typeface with colorful gradients.
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 white suit on the most recognizable man in pop music wasn't his at all. It belonged to the photographer, who'd simply worn it to work that day. The story behind Michael Jackson's Thriller cover is a small accident that helped shape an image seen around the world.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Lil Nas X floats nude in this heavenly digital dreamscape shot by Charlotte Rutherford and designed by Pilar Zeta. The psychedelic cover transforms John Stephens' Genesis II artwork into a queer-coded Garden of Eden, sparking the rapper's bold artistic transformation and becoming one of 2021's most talked-about album covers.
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.
The haunting cover of Piano Man features what many assumed were manipulated photographs but are actually photorealistic acrylic paintings by Bill Imhoff, one of Columbia Records' go-to album artists. The front and back cover paintings were originally gifted to Joel's manager before eventually being sold.
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.
Artist Sam McKinniss painted Lorde's portrait from paparazzi photos, creating an ethereal oil painting that captures teenage angst through classical portraiture techniques. The cover transforms celebrity surveillance into fine art.
Denzel Curry's introspective masterpiece features a striking close-up of the rapper's face split between shadow and warm light, creating a powerful visual metaphor for the album's themes of mental health and personal transformation.
A single polaroid snapshot of Donald Glover's face becomes one of hip-hop's most intimate album covers. Shot by frequent collaborator Ibra Ake, the deliberately low-fi image captures Glover mid-transformation into his funk alter ego.
Shot in a single afternoon in Compton, this deceptively simple Polaroid-style cover became one of hip-hop's most powerful statements on Black masculinity and vulnerability. The raw intimacy of Kendrick's expression contrasts sharply with typical rap album imagery.
Björk's face emerges from crystalline growths in this haunting cover that took months to create using cutting-edge digital manipulation. The image perfectly captures the album's intimate winter atmosphere through revolutionary photography techniques.
Fashion photographer Jerry Schatzberg captured Dylan in a rushed Manhattan session, creating one of rock's most enigmatic portraits. The blurred, intimate close-up became a template for introspective album covers across decades.
Marvin Gaye's masterpiece broke Motown's visual rules with an intimate portrait showing the artist in a knit cap looking pensively into the distance. The cover's casual, contemplative mood perfectly matched the album's shift from pop to socially conscious soul.
Stevie Wonder's mystical album cover features his face emerging from cosmic darkness, created during his creative peak after negotiating unprecedented artistic control from Motown. The ethereal portrait perfectly captured the spiritual journey of his most introspective masterpiece.
Stevie Wonder's double album featured an innovative fold-out cover with intricate African-inspired border patterns and symbolic imagery representing life's journey. The artwork's cosmic and spiritual elements perfectly matched Wonder's most ambitious musical statement.
Mick Rock's androgynous portrait of Lou Reed became one of the most influential LGBTQ+ album covers ever, but the image was actually shot during Reed's glam rock phase when he was exploring gender fluidity through makeup and fashion.
The iconic black and white portrait was shot with a Hasselblad in Eric Meola's studio, capturing Springsteen leaning against a wall in his signature cap and leather jacket. The intimate close-up became one of rock's most recognizable covers.
David Byrne created this stark, unsettling cover by photocopying his own face repeatedly until the image degraded into a haunting, pixelated portrait that perfectly captured the album's paranoid themes.
Patrick Nagel's striking illustration of model Marielle Gomar became one of the 1980s most recognizable album covers, featuring bold geometric shapes and vivid colors that perfectly captured MTV's new aesthetic. The artwork was created as an illustration, not a photograph, using Nagel's signature airbrush technique.
Morrissey's obsession with 1960s French New Wave cinema birthed one of indie rock's most mysterious covers. The frontman personally selected this enigmatic still from Jean Cocteau's 1946 film Beauty and the Beast, featuring actor Jean Marais in romantic profile.
Prince's purple-tinted double album cover features a stark, minimalist portrait that launched his iconic color association. Photographer Allen Beaulieu captured the brooding image in a single session, creating one of the most recognizable album covers of the 1980s.
Madonna's True Blue cover emerged from a single Polaroid test shot that photographer Herb Ritts took during their first collaboration. The intimate black-and-white portrait, with Madonna's tousled hair and direct gaze, became one of the most influential pop album covers of the 1980s.
The stark black and white portrait that launched a thousand hip-hop covers used the simplest possible concept: two artists, direct eye contact, no gimmicks. This minimalist approach became the template for serious rap album artwork.
Morrissey hand-picked a haunting 1960s photograph of actor Shelagh Delaney for this compilation cover, continuing his obsession with forgotten British cultural figures. The stark black and white portrait became one of The Smiths' most enigmatic sleeves.
Billy Corgan commissioned artist Yelena Yemchuk to create a Victorian-era tableau featuring two mysterious figures in elaborate period dress. The resulting photograph became one of the most hauntingly beautiful album covers of the 1990s, perfectly capturing the band's ambitious double album's themes of melancholy and grandeur.
Tricky's debut album cover features a stark black and white portrait that perfectly captures the dark, intimate atmosphere of his groundbreaking trip-hop masterpiece. The minimalist design became an iconic representation of mid-90s alternative culture.
The stark black-and-white cover featuring Dr. Dre in a contemplative pose became one of hip-hop's most influential visual statements. Shot in simple studio lighting, its minimalist approach let the music speak louder than flashy graphics.
PJ Harvey's Mercury Prize-winning album features a haunting black-and-white portrait that captures the duality of urban grit and oceanic mystery. Photographer Seamus Murphy created an image that perfectly embodied Harvey's artistic transformation.
Eminem's breakthrough album cover features a stark, unsettling portrait that perfectly captured the controversy and raw honesty of his music. The image became one of hip-hop's most recognizable covers, marking a shift from flashy rap imagery to intimate vulnerability.
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.
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.
Four guys, one brick wall, and a $125 photograph that rewrote what an album cover could be. The Ramones barely sold a copy in 1976, yet the picture they posed for has been copied more than almost any other in rock. Here is how blank stares and ripped jeans became the look of punk.
Frank Sinatra stands alone under blue streetlight, cigarette burning, fedora pushed back in resignation. Painted to mirror an album about loneliness and lost love, this 1955 cover plays like a film noir poster, and it would resurface decades later in Vanilla Sky, in a syringe-wielding parody, and in Kurt Elling's careful re-pose.
A man in a woman's sequinned thrift-store jacket, eyes closed, lost in music he was listening to as the shutter clicked. Columbia's bosses hated it, thinking he looked like a lounge singer. Jeff Buckley overruled them all.
When Milton Glaser built this 1969 cover, he wanted strangers to stop and ask 'What the hell is that?' The face staring back, half-lit and unblinking under a battered hat, belonged to an unknown songwriter whose name couldn't sell a single record. So Glaser sold the stare instead.
A bloodied, grinning face tilts toward the light on the cover of The Weeknd's After Hours. Shot by Anton Tammi against a sickly red glow, it borrows its title from a 1985 film and its menace from cinema. What looks like a portrait is really a confession.
A face half-drowned in flowers and shadow, blurred to the edge of vanishing. The man behind The Cure's Disintegration never meant to be on its cover at all, yet there he is, seeping into the dark. Andy Vella built the whole image from Polaroids, projected and re-photographed until colour itself came apart.
A Columbia producer heard it and snapped, 'It's a piece of shit! It's not produced.' Recorded cheap in a Garland, Texas studio with barely more than guitar, piano, and drums, Willie Nelson's spare murder-ballad concept album turned a dismissed 'demo' into the record that made him a superstar.
Four men stand grim against an endless Death Valley horizon, coats off in freezing cold so it would look hot. The story of U2's 1987 desert journey involves a working title called 'The Two Americas,' a lone tree found in 20 minutes, and a band picture that sent fans on pilgrimages still happening today.
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.
On a cold, wet January night in 1972, a man stood alone under a furrier's sign in a London cul-de-sac, holding a borrowed guitar and pretending to be an alien. The black-and-white photograph that resulted was hand-painted into a sci-fi vision, and the shop owners were not amused.
She faces you head-on, hair scattered with dozens of half-clipped clips, mid-transformation and utterly still. Behind Solange's 2016 portrait is a partnership that began with a single Instagram discovery and grew into a statement about black women's solidarity.
An oil painting of Richard D. James's face in classical portraiture style — his broad, slightly sinister grin rendered with Old Master technique — satirizes fine art conventions while establishing the Aphex Twin's unsettling grin as a recurring visual motif.
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.
A freezing February afternoon in Greenwich Village, a young couple walking arm-in-arm down a slushy street, and a photographer who admitted he had no real plan. The shot that resulted rewrote what an album cover could be. But the woman beside Bob Dylan was never named, and four songs vanished from the record just before it shipped.
On 1 April 1995, Björk stood in Piccadilly Circus in a jacket made of airmail envelope paper, surrounded by giant postcards. The cover of Post turned homesickness into design: a woman trying to mail herself back to Iceland.
She sits alone on a wooden stool against a chalk-streaked black wall, hands clasped, gaze level and unflinching. The cover of Back to Black froze Amy Winehouse at the threshold of fame, in a Kensal Rise room the photographer called 'the black room'. Behind the calm pose sat an album built from real heartbreak.
A black-and-white house party erupts on the White House lawn, dollar bills fanned in fists, a baby cradled in the crowd, and a dead judge sprawled at everyone's feet. Kendrick Lamar's 2015 photograph turned the seat of American power into a stage for the kids he grew up with in Compton.
On the cover of Rumours, Mick Fleetwood strikes a courtly pose with wooden balls dangling between his legs. The story behind those balls, a toilet, and a couple of glasses of English ale, is stranger than anything the music suggests.
John Coltrane stares into the middle distance, half in shadow, on the cover of A Love Supreme — a photo snapped by his own producer. Behind that quiet face was a four-part devotional suite cut in a single 1964 session that would outsell everything he'd ever done.