Released:<\/strong> 12 September 1975, UK (Harvest Records), 13 September 1975, US (Columbia Records)<\/p>\n Charts:<\/strong> No. 1 in the US, UK, Australia, The Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain<\/p>\n Sales:<\/strong> Over 20,000,000<\/p>\n Fascinating fact:<\/strong> At 4am on the evening of the cover shoot Powell left a party with assistant Peter Christopherson and noticed mist at the front of the Cadillac. Powell reveals, \u2018Peter said, \u201cyour car\u2019s on fire\u201d. I stopped the car and we jumped out. The car exploded and burnt to the ground. We\u2019d just done this dangerous fire stunt and here we were coming from a party and the car caught fire.\u2019<\/p>\n Wish You Were Here, the ninth studio album by the legendary rock band Pink Floyd, saw chief songwriter Roger Waters exploring themes of absence, alienation and the band\u2019s melancholy following the departure of former guitarist Syd Barrett, due to his mental health issues, in 1968. It was also, in places, a searing critique of a cynical music business.<\/p>\n As with the iconic light prism design for Pink Floyd\u2019s 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon the design was handled by the Hipgnosis agency, which had been co-founded by the late Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey \u2018Po\u2019 Powell. Powell explains, \u2018I photographed all of the pictures on the album.<\/p>\n They were shot in \u201975 during a Pink Floyd tour of America. We flew to California and Storm had already presented the band with the ideas, which were sketches that I\u2019d done, at Abbey Road Studios. He was very nervous showing them but when he finished he got a round of applause from the band.\u2019<\/p>\n Powell reveals, \u2018We\u2019d heard tracks up at Abbey Road Studios and we knew what Roger Waters\u2019 concept of it was. We knew his idea was very much about absence and Shine On You Crazy Diamond really came from the loss of Syd Barrett. Barrett\u2019s spectre still haunted Pink Floyd \u2013 the fact that he\u2019d gone mad overnight and the band was left to fend for themselves had only been five or six years before.<\/p>\n On Dark Side of the Moon Roger had written about madness, loneliness, life on the road and all these rather in-depth subjects that transcended into Wish You Were Here \u2013 it\u2019s a very deep album.\u2019<\/p>\n\t\t Storm Thorgerson said the faceless man is a \u2018salesman selling his soul\u2019 and features on the back. It was shot in the Yuma Desert. Said to represent earth, the absence of wrists and ankles is said to show him as an \u2018empty suit\u2019<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n In a 2012 TV documentary, The Making of Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd\u2019s lead guitarist David Gilmour recalls, \u2018We mostly, in those days, left it to Storm to come up with things [design ideas]… we would give him a desultory two minutes of our mixing time to say, \u201cthat one maybe, that one, not that, not that\u201d. He came up with these [ideas]\u2026 from the lyrics, this theme of absence.\u2019<\/p>\n The core idea for the album cover was to illustrate the cynical nature of the music business at that time. Powell explains, \u2018The album being about absence and insincerity gave way to Storm\u2019s idea about two businessmen shaking hands \u2013 one of them is being insincere and the other is getting burnt in the deal.<\/p>\n I\u2019d said to Storm, \u201cHow are we going to do that?\u201d as it wasn\u2019t the days of digital retouching. He said, \u201cI guess you\u2019re going to have to burn a man for real.\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n When he got to LA, Powell interviewed stuntmen and recruited expert fire stuntmen Ronnie Rondell and Danny Rogers Jr. Powell recalls, \u2018Rondell was the main \u201cfire man\u201d and he had so much charisma and strength of character. He said to me when he saw the [cover concept] drawing, \u201cI never stand still to do a fire stunt. You have to be moving to keep the fire behind you\u2026 running, jumping or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\t The red veil shot represented air within the inner sleeve. \u00a9 Hipgnosis\/Aubrey Powell\/Harvest Records\/Columbia Record<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n I said, \u201cWell, this has to be two men shaking hands, one on fire.\u201d He said, \u201cI can\u2019t guarantee that. I\u2019ll try it running and so on.\u201d I didn\u2019t want to lose him, so I agreed and thought I\u2019d just have to busk it on the day.\u2019<\/p>\n Rondell used his specialist team of fire stunt experts and the shoot was scheduled for the following Saturday at the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, California. Powell admits, \u2019It was a dangerous shoot to do. We started off doing pictures of him running towards camera on fire and it just wasn\u2019t what we wanted.<\/p>\n It was an incredibly still afternoon so, after lunch, I said, \u201cI really have to have you shaking hands. There\u2019s no wind, it\u2019s still.\u201d Ronnie said, \u201cOkay. We\u2019ll try it.\u201d They covered him in the flammable material and set him on fire. I had three cameras shooting, one after the other. Jeff [Smith] shot one, Powell\u2019s assistant Peter [Christopherson] shot one and I was shooting on a Hasselblad \u2013 we just shot and shot and shot.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\t\t The square format version of the \u2018splashless diver\u2019 shot by Powell. Lake Mono, California<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n Powell was using Kodak colour transparency film and explains, \u2018It was probably at a fairly high shutter speed because some of the shots were in sunlight and some were slightly in shadow. It was very bright with clear blue skies, so I would have been shooting at least at 1\/250sec to get the flames sharp. I also wanted the depth-of-field so the buildings were sharp behind.<\/p>\n Half a stop could make a big difference, so we used to bracket. I\u2019m shooting that in 20 seconds, so I\u2019m going half a stop under, half a stop over, a stop under, a stop over and back to the centre. \u2018Each time the fire lasted about 20 seconds because it blew up so quickly. Before the second time Rondell said, \u201cI wasn\u2019t so happy with that. I think we can do better.\u201d<\/p>\n\t\t An outtake from the Wish You Were Here cover shoot. \u00a9 Hipgnosis\/Aubrey Powell<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n So we did it again and that was really good. The third time a small gust of wind blew and blew round his face. He threw himself to the ground and his team was on top of him with blankets, with fire extinguishers and got him [put] out.<\/p>\n He\u2019d burnt his eyebrows and singed his moustache \u2013 he was lucky he didn\u2019t burn his face. He got up and said, \u201cThat\u2019s it. No more.\u201d But I knew I had the shot \u2013 it was fantastic. I was very pleased and he went away happy.\u2019<\/p>\n The final design twist on the theme of absence came with the decision to package the album in black shrink-wrap, obscuring the cover. The decision was hugely unpopular with US record firm Columbia Records, but it was over-ruled. EMI (of which Harvest Records was a subsidiary) in the UK was less concerned.<\/p>\n Powell explains, \u2018Storm was always very smart at coming up with interesting ideas and he persuaded the band that why should they give away the content of the album?\u2019<\/p>\n\t\t The album in its black shrink-wrap covering as it appeared in record stores<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n He adds, \u2018In big record stores where you had 10,000 albums you had to stand out and, of course, a black shrink-wrapped cover with a colourful central logo on it did stand out.<\/p>\n It had no name of the band on it other than on the label. George Hardie, who did all the graphics, designed that robotic handshaking, cold, AI kind of image (for the circular label). All those factors were reasons to put the shrink-wrapping on. Many people tore the wrapping off and, afterwards, regretted they\u2019d not kept the wrapping. I\u2019ve got one at home, which is intact.\u2019<\/p>\n The classic photography for the album also took the theme of the four elements \u2013 fire, earth, air and water \u2013 for four images. The cover was fire, a splashless diver was water, an invisible nude model with a red scarf was air and a salesman standing in the desert was earth.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m very proud of the cover image but my favourite photo is the diver. I still have goose bumps thinking about that shot because it was just a magical moment. I knew I\u2019d got an incredible shot.\u2019<\/p>\n Aubrey \u2018Po\u2019 Powell began his career in the mid-1960s as a set designer. He shared an apartment with Storm Thorgerson and the two co-founded Hipgnosis in 1967. Hipgnosis thrived and produced many LP covers. He progressed on to making music videos, TV commercials, documentaries and corporate films but in 2014 returned to album design for Pink Floyd\u2019s The Division Bell 20th anniversary box set.<\/p>\n Harry Borden<\/strong><\/p>\n An unforgettable moment of my career was photographing David Gilmour in rehearsal doing a stripped-down version of Wish You Were Here. The disturbingly surreal image perfectly illustrates the eponymous song about founding member Syd Barrett (who suffered a drug- Andy Cowles<\/strong><\/p>\n This sleeve remains as famous as the music. The serenity of the pose belies the burning tension between artist and management. It reflects outward appearances and private pain and, probably, Gilmour\u2019s and Waters combustible relationship. It\u2019s amazing it didn\u2019t blow up in your hand!<\/p>\n Dr Andy Earl<\/strong><\/p>\n Wish You Were Here is a perfect example of how music throws up ideas, questions, feelings and personal interpretations. Hipgnosis\u2019s vision captured that moment in this photograph where surrealism and madness gel together and produce a shocking, but humorous, image.<\/p>\n Some of the finest names in music and photography chose the series\u2019 covers<\/p>\n Janette Beckmann Further reading<\/strong><\/p>\n Greatest album photography: Quadrophenia The Who<\/a><\/p>\n
\n![\"Album](\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/Required-expansion-for-lead-image.jpg\")
<\/a>\n<\/a>\t\t\tWorking with fire<\/h3>\n
<\/a>\t\t\t<\/a>\t\t\t<\/a>\t\t\tShrink-wrapping the cover<\/h3>\n
<\/a>\t\t\t
\nAubrey ‘Po’ Powell<\/h3>\n
<\/a>\n
\nThe panel on Wish You Were Here<\/h3>\n
<\/a>\n
\ninduced breakdown).<\/p>\n<\/a>\n<\/a>\nOur panel of judges<\/h3>\n
\nJason Bell
\nHarry Borden
\nEd Caraeff
\nAndy Cowles
\nKevin Cummins
\nDr Andy Earl
\nJill Furmanovsky
\nChristie Goodwin
\nPeter Hook
\nSimon Larbalestier
\nGered Mankowitz
\nDennis Morris
\nPeter Neill
\nAubrey \u2018Po\u2019 Powell
\nRankin
\nJamel Shabazz
\nMat Snow
\nHoward Wakefield
\nKirk Weddle
\nRachael Wright<\/p>\n
\n