STORM THORGERSON
Storm Thorgerson was a visionary graphic designer and artist best known for his iconic album cover designs. A founding member of the design group Hipgnosis, his work pushed the boundaries of surrealism and conceptual art, blending bold visuals with thought-provoking narratives. Thorgerson’s covers, such as Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon and Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy, are celebrated for their striking imagery, meticulous detail, and symbolic depth. His innovative approach often involved elaborate photography and physical set pieces, creating timeless visuals that transformed album art into a true extension of the music itself.
STAFF PICKS
Limited edition fine art Pink Floyd print by Storm Thorgerson.
Location: Madrid, Spain 2003
Photographer’s notes: Another piece of rare Floydiana, this stark image was a poster designed to promote the Pink Floyd exhibition, Interstellar, at the Paris Cité De La Musique in October 2003. I wasn’t sure how effective this idea was and so I designed two posters in a bout of doubt, as it were, the second of which - also called Interstellar surprisingly - was a sculpture of two perfect mirror balls finely balanced one of on top of the other. The first, the bridge, was intended as a laconic comment on a band coming to the end of their illustrious career, as represented by a couple coming to literally the end of the road, the end of the relationship. It was of course this road business that was difficult to find but was finally located as part of an incomplete motorway junction just outside Madrid, Spain - at least we knew the light would be good. Apart from the very graphic nature of this image what also appealed to me was the idea of blatant nudity which would require a magnifying glass to detect. And who would bother, would you?
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Limited edition fine art Pink Floyd print by Storm Thorgerson.
Location: A country road in Essex, England in 1987
Photographer’s notes: The idea of beds for the Momentary Lapse cover came from a line of lyric - ‘Visions of an empty bed’ (Yet Another Movie) it was more than a momentary lapse, I can tell you, more like a day of complete lunacy. Or two days, as we had to shoot it twice. because of rain. But this is not the album cover; this is in fact an offshoot, a European tour poster, and I cunningly decided to put some beds ‘on the road’, and place them in a long line down the center stretching into the distance (it was a long tour) The road I had had in mind was one of those endless straight French roads with lines of trees on either side in order to accentuate the perspective and be properly European. Though the road in question is in Essex it looks French to me, especially with a French policeman and a ‘French’ maid who was also on the album cover. This picture is actually quite a rarity, being in normal color whereas the published piece was a black and white version, which was, then hand colored. The thing I remember most vividly was that we had the French gall to position the beds in an empty road without recourse to police or public and prayed for no interruption All hope springs eternal they say. There was no traffic; no police but there was rain, of course. Can’t have everything it seems mad to think I could...another momentary lapse of reason, clearly.
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Limited edition fine art Pink Floyd print by Storm Thorgerson. Inner sleeve art for Pink Floyd's seminal album Wish You Were Here.
Location: Norfolk UK, 1975
During the making of the album, Thorgerson claims that Pink Floyd were "not entirely together as a band", which is where the concept of absence for the album came from. The nude woman in the inner sleeve is absent from first viewing. You must strain to find her form in the image of a red veil. Storm Thorgerson wrote in his book Mind over Matter "The red muslin veil is a universal item, or symbol, of hiding the face, either culturally as in Araby, or for respect as in funerals. What is behind the veil?"
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Storm Thorgerson Print Information
Archival pigment print on Hahnemühle fine art paper using archival inks.
Limited edition with certified “Storm Thorgerson” estate stamps.
Size information found in each listing.
NOTE: Measurements quoted are paper size, with the printed image being slightly smaller to create a natural border to house the signature and edition number