Creating the Animals album cover image included stringing up an enormous inflatable pig between the iconic smoke stacks at Battersea, and Hipgnosis, the graphics partnership between Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell, were entirely responsible for the concept and bringing it to fruition. However, famously, or perhaps infamously, getting their shot proved incredibly difficult and required three attempts on three separate days.
This photograph captures the third day, when the team finally got the pig blown up and in the air, only someone had made an unfortunate miscalculation and the beast broke free and flew away before they could get their shot. Carinthia had been invited to the shoot, and actually managed to capture it before it escaped and this has become one of her most popular images.
“I shot a whole roll of film of London’s famed Battersea Power Station when the Pink Floyd flew a blow-up pig above it for their Animals cover in 1976. To everyone’s horror, the inflated pig slipped free from its moorings while aloft. The band had originally hired an ex-police marksman to shoot it down if this happened, but he never showed up." -- Carinthia West
Collector's Notes:
Carinthia West's photographs are printed to order in the UK, please allow 2-4 weeks for delivery. Each photograph will be hand-signed by the artist.
Buyers will receive a certificate of authenticity following delivery of the artwork.