In Loving Memory 28 02 1944 18 04 2013
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In Loving 28 Memory 02 - 1944 18 04 2013 Thorgerson, who was of Norwegian descent,[2] was born in Potters Bar, Middlesex (now part of Hertfordshire), and he attended Summerhill School, Brunswick Primary School in Cambridge, and the Cambridgeshire S High School for Boys with Pink Floyd founders Syd Barrett, who was in the T year below him, and Roger Waters, who was in the year above him. Thorgerson O and Waters played rugby together at school, while Thorgerson’s mother R Vanji and Waters’ mother Mary were M Thorgerson. C A R E E R In 1968 along with Aubrey Powell he StormStudios along with Peter Curzon – a founded the graphic art group Hipgnosis, loose group of freelancers. The line up and between them they designed many included Rupert Truman (photographer), famous single and album covers, with Finlay Cowan (designer and illustrator), Peter Christopherson joining them for Daniel Abbott (designer and artist), Lee their later commissions.[8] In 1983, Baker (creative retoucher and designer) following the dissolution of Hipgnosis, and Jerry Sweet (designer) along with Thorgerson and Powell formed Greenback Thorgerson’s personal assistants, Laura Films, producing music videos. In the Truman (prints) and Charlotte Barnes, and early nineties Thorgerson inaugurated then later Silvia Ruga (designer). PINK FLOYD Perhaps Thorgerson’s most famous designs are those for Pink Floyd.[9] His design for The Dark Side of the Moon has been called one of the greatest album covers of all time. Designed by Thorgerson and Hipgnosis, the artwork for the cover itself was drawn by George Hardie,[10] a designer at NTA Studios. Many of Storm Thorgerson’s designs are notable for their surreal elements. He often places objects out of their traditional contexts, especially with vast spaces around them, to give them an awkward appearance while highlighting their beauty. To quote Thorgerson, –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[sic] of is it real or not?– Once described as a –modern day Dali, cover for Pink Floyd’s Animals (1977); Thorgerson aimed to encapsulate in his music,– he observed. –If you were trying to Magritte and Man Ray all wrapped into conjured up the dreamlike, but decidedly art what bands were trying to say in their present an emotion, or a feeling, or an idea, one–, his hypnotic, outlandish, mostly creepy image of blonde–haired, naked music: –Pictures of a band, like the Beatles, or a theme, or an obsession, or a perversion, photographic images became as much children climbing the Giant’s Causeway for or Take That, what do they tell you? They or a preoccupation, when would it have four a part of the mystique of the bands with Led Zeppelin’s Houses Of The Holy (1973); tell you what they look like, but nothing guys in it?– whom he worked as their music. and, more recently, created the image of about what’s in their hearts, or in their He floated a giant inflatable pig over four men playing cards in the desert for Battersea Power Station to produce the Muse’s Black Holes and Revelations (2006). LIFE OF STORM Storm Thorgerson was born in Potters Thorgerson studied for an MA in Film and Bar, Middlesex, on February 28 1944, and Television at the Royal College of Art in educated at Cambridge High School for London, hoping to be a film director. He fell Boys, where Roger Waters and Syd Barrett into designing sleeves by accident when (later two of the founder members of Pink Floyd invited his flatmate, Aubrey Pink Floyd) were in the years above and Powell, a scenic designer at the BBC, to below him respectively. After attending design a record cover for them. When Powell Leicester University, where he read English, declined, Thorgerson volunteered. –I had no ‘People call me a surrealist,’ he says, ‘but I don’t think I am. Well, maybe I am. But what I do is set someone on fire or build a statue and photograph it. Actually, I think what I do is performance Creative Review Blog His designs often include surreal elements, taking objects away from their context and placing them in new contexts to incite new meanings and highlighting their beauty. To quote Thorgerson, “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?” S u R R ea Lis M Thorgerson, –the best album designer in the world– according to writer Douglas Adams, was a childhood friend of the founding members “The Best of Pink Floyd and he became their designer–in–chief, designing 15 Album album covers for them. Dave Gilmour, guitarist and vocalist for Pink Floyd, Designer” has said that Thorgerson’s artworks are –an inseparable part of our work.– Pink Floyd chose Thorgerson after they had seen work by him for a publishing friend of Thorgerson’s, in T R R which he experimented with infrared G photography. At that moment, H S Thorgerson shared a flat in South O E O N Kensington with his friend Aubrey Powell, who was a scenic designer at the BBC. 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Psychedeliaa deeper meaning or millionsPsychedelia of living rooms, PsychedeliaPsychedeliaMore than any singlePsychedelia symbolic connectionPsychedelia to they’ve been reprinted figure, he established the music, you largely countless times as dorm– PsychedeliaPsychedeliaintricately composed, Psychedeliahave Thorgerson and roomPsychedelia posters and T–shirts, surrealist photographic Hipgnosis to thank. He’s becoming part of pop PsychedeliaPsychedeliatechniques, collages,Psychedelia and been recognized withPsychedelia culture’s lingua franca. pictorial reappropriations gallery retrospectives, PsychedeliaPsychedeliaPsychedeliaPsychedelia PsychedeliaPsychedeliaPsychedeliaPsychedelia PsychedeliaPsychedeliaPsychedeliaPsychedelia PsychedeliaPsychedeliaPsychedeliaPsychedelia D In 2003, Thorgerson suffered a stroke, from which he was partially paralysed. He was later diagnosed with an undis– closed form of cancer, which he battled E A for several years, but which eventually led to his death on 18 April 2013, at the age of 69. After Thorgerson’s death, David Gilmour released a statement de– scribing him as –a constant force in my T life, both at work and in private, a shoul– der to cry on, and a great friend–. A post on the official Pink Floyd website called him a –graphic genius–.[14] Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason said that he was a H –tireless worker right up to the end–.[ rest in peace.