3 cover stories in our archive
Behind the Covers' archive includes 3 album covers documented under the "portrait photography" design theme, spanning the 1980s, 1990s. These covers sit within the electronic, alternative, hip-hop, metal, rock tradition and feature work by Björk, Jay-Z, Black Sabbath. 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.
Björk's face emerges from a sculptural ruff collar like a futuristic Elizabethan portrait, created through painstaking digital manipulation that took months to perfect. The image merged high fashion with alien beauty, establishing a new template for electronic music artwork.
Jonathan Mannion and art director Adrien Vargas built Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt cover around a timeless New York mob-boss image: black and white, white suit, wide-brimmed hat, cigar and controlled anonymity. The album had originally been called Heir to the Throne before Jay-Z changed the title and let listeners decide whether he deserved the crown.
The cover of Black Sabbath's Seventh Star places Tony Iommi alone in a barren, otherworldly landscape, turning an album caught between solo record and Sabbath release into a portrait of isolation. The original sleeve credits Steve J. Gerdes with art direction and design and Kevin Stapleton with photography, while the package also incorporates Lucas Cranach the Elder's 1506 woodcut The Temptation of St Antony.