Storm Thorgeson

"I like photography because it is a reality medium, unlike drawing which is unreal. I like to mess with reality...to bend reality. Some of my works beg the question of is it real or not?"


Storm Thorgeson is a English graphic designer famous for his work with a number of rock bands, including Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and the Cranberries. His most famous work, the iconic cover of Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon (below) is widely acclaimed as one of the most iconic album covers of all time.

 Whilst not being described (at least on his wikipedia page) as a photographer, a large amount of his work utilises photography as a starting point before Thorgeson manipulates the image in post-production.

 Biffy Clyro 'Saturday Superhouse'

The Mars Volta 'Televators'

 Pink Floyd 'Animals'

 Yourcodenameis:Milo 'Rapt Dept'

Thorgeson's work often features unconventional objects placed in wide-open spaces (particularly evident in the 'Animals' photo). this approach gives the objects "an awkward appearance and highlights their beauty". Thorgeson's use of surrealism is also notable.

Introduction/Initial Thoughts

Narrative: 

A spoken or written account of connected events; a story: "a bare narrative of the details".

Photographic Narrative is by name the telling of a story, or an account of one or more events in the form of a single or a series of photographs.

To narrate, in it's simplest form, is to provide an account of a single or series of interlinked events. The most traditional form of narrative can be found within novels or stories. Here narrative is [in my opinion at least] at it's purest. In a story, the narrator (in other words: the writer) is free to expand upon or omit details as he or she chooses. While there is of course a certain degree of interpretation, the implied moral or plot is almost always obvious.

To convey a story through a photograph seems [on first impression] to be an entirely different beast. While the narrator of a story has a limitless combination of words available to them, the photographer has only a limited amount of images at his/her disposal, therefore each image must be constructed with great care. As a result of this, the potential narrative behind a photograph is as much a result of audience interpretation as anything else. The photographer could choose to include a description along with their photographs, however it seems to me that this would reduce the artistic value of the piece. The inclusion of a title only would seem to be a more appropriate way of providing the audience with a clue as to the artist's intent.