My new album "Space," is out (or as I like to say, in orbit) and I have received a lot of amazing feedback. One of the frequent questions that I have been getting has been about the cover. People wanting to know if the image was photo shopped, or how we got the picture. Well, the image is 100% real and here is the story behind it.
After finishing the album, which I see as a concept EP/super single, I knew I wanted a striking image for the cover that captured the essence of the project. I immediately contacted the amazingly talented Luke Redmond about shooting the cover and he graciously agreed.
We started very conceptually, trading music and images, found objects and other album covers to get the creative juices flowing. We talked a lot about what the album and songs were trying to say and also what Luke was getting from the music. This was a really key element because it put us on common footing and gave us a common language to speak in. We came up with a few concepts and two locations to shoot; Grand Central Terminal and Central Park and we set a date for the shoot.
The day of the shoot started early and in Grand Central. We picked the famed train station because to me the album is about distance and the space that separates people and the terminal is very spacious and is a place that takes people away from and brings people together. We shot a lot of photos there and then headed out to central park. At this point we knew we had some great shots, but I think deep down we knew we didn't have "the one" yet.
As we left the station, we ran into a giant street fair on Madison Ave. The lighting was perfect so as we walked we took some shots. It was fun because as we shot through the crowds, people began to stop and stare thinking we were doing a modeling shoot, which boosted my self esteem :) These turned out to be incredible, but we were still bent on getting some shots in the park.
We stopped for coffee at the base of the park and looked through what we had. We thought we may have had the shot, but we wanted to finish what we had planned for the day. After sufficient caffeine intake, we headed to the park. We took a lot of shots, but weren't getting exactly what we wanted. As the sun began to set we headed to the Bethesda Fountain to try and shoot in the mosaic courtyard that is right in front of it. It's a really cool space and we were hoping to get a great shot in there, but the lighting was just not right. We took that as a sign that we were done and began to walk to the fountain to relax after a long day. It was then we say the stairway.
On the wall of the stairway leading down to the fountain were these long shadows cast by passers by. Immediately Luke was like "get over there!" It was just an instinct and not at all what we planned, but somehow we both new this was a fleeting moment and we needed to capture it. As I stood against the wall and we watched the shadows play, we knew this was going to be a great shot. He snapped the shutter and looked at what he had. He told me to come over, and just from looking at it on the camera display, we knew we had our shot.
After all the planning and shooting, we got our cover in an unplanned spontaneous moment. I don't think that without all the planning and hard work we would have got such a moment, but isn't that life.
You can check out more of Luke Redmond's work here.
You can purchase my new album "Space" here.
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