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Tracklisting & More Information
How the shot came about in the words of the photographer, Vic Singh.
"In the mid-1960's, I was a young established photographer and a member of the 60's swinging “in-crowd”. I first met Pink Floyd at an event - or happening as it was called in those days -under the statue of Eros in Piccadilly Circus in London. They were a new, unknown band and we all chatted for a while. They looked trippy and said they were making their first record album.
A few weeks after our meeting at Piccadilly, their manager (I can't remember who called, but it was probably either Peter Jenner or Andrew King) rang me at my studio and asked me if I would like to shoot the album cover for The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. I agreed, and we fixed a date for a one day shoot in my studio. At that time, Pink Floyd were a new band unsigned to any record label, and so there was no art director. I asked their manager if he or the band had any ideas for the album cover, the answer was “no”, and so it was left up to me to come up with ideas. I don't know if the band had seen any of my work, and since I was not given much to work with visually, the inspiration would need to come from the music and the band's image.
The band was psychedelic and their music was surreal and alien compared to other popular music of the time, so it needed a far-out image. Having to work with a small production budget (Colour labs for special effects were mega-expensive, and there was no technology like today), I decided to use a prism lens which George Harrison had given me because he could not find a use for it and I had not used it up till then, so it seemed like the perfect solution. All I had to do was screw it on my Hasselblad camera lens and the creative special effect would go straight on to the film.
The photo shoot was in my studio and was shot on a white background with flat, even electronic strobe lighting (i.e., a studio flash). I used my Hasselblad with an 80-mm lens and 2 1/4 square Kodak Ektachrome Daylight type film. As I had decided to shoot with the prism lens - which multiplied and softened some of the images - I also asked the band to bring colourful psychedelic clothes (fashionable at the time) which would stand out and provide us with more contrast as the prism lens tended to soften and lose contrast as it split the image. I don't know how long it took the band to get the clothes together, but they arrived at the studio in the morning, put the coffee pot on, and sat around the studio chatting. There was a lot to chat about as London was buzzing - it was a time of love and peace.
Finally, we decided to get on with the photos and the boys went to the changing room and started trying on the clothes. I first started with some test Polaroid shots, positioning them on the white background, which was a bit tricky as the prism lens multiplied each figure - they all overlapped each other! - so I had to get the figures positioned right or the whole thing looked like a mess. Syd got especially interested at this point and was quite intense, changing outfits and the positions of the band on the background and shooting tests on the Polaroid film with me.
When it was time for a lunch break, my assistant arrived with sandwiches, a couple bottles of Scotch and some joints - all quite enjoyable. After lunch, we put on some Piper music. I had a rather loud stereo system and the Piper sounds could be heard all the way down the street. With the music blasting away, we got into the session, shooting quite a few reels of film and finishing up around 6:00pm. We had the films processed the next day and I delivered the photos the day after.
They loved the photos and Syd got inspired to create the back of the album cover. It had been a beautiful day - as had the day before the shoot and the day after - I attribute it to Flower Power!"
PHOTOGRAPH
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