The UK cover of the 1975 Pink Floyd opus, Wish You Were Here. The album deals with the exploitative nature of the music industry as well as former band-mate Syd Barrett's mental decline.
“The handshake from the burning man is as empty or absent a gesture as you can get. The man is really on fire. He wore an asbestos suit under the cloth suit, which extends over the head, where a wig was attached. The first attempts at setting him alight were in the wrong wind direction. The flames were blown back and ignited his mustache for an instant. A close shave, one might say.” - Storm Thorgerson
Image courtesy of Pink Floyd. Photography by Hipgnosis.
Exhibition History:
Lambda Print
Mind Over Matter - The Images of Pink Floyd: 40 Years of Collaboration with Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis and StormStudios, June - July, 2008, San Francisco Art Exchange, San Francisco, CA.
Release Notes:
Lambda Print
In 2008, Storm Thorgerson and SFAE celebrated Pink Floyd's 40th anniversary with an exhibition of signed Lambda digital C-Type photographic prints of album cover related images that he had created for the band over the previous 40 years.
These included works he produced both as a founding member of the design collective Hipgnosis, and as an independent designer with StormStudios.
The Lambda printing process involves using lasers to expose a photo-sensitive paper which is then wet-processed, similar to a tradtional dark room photographic print.
Storm's Lambda prints were produced as signed, open editions and were only briefly available for sale as they were intended only for the anniversary celebration. Relatively few of any single image were produced.
Serigraph Print
This image was published in the UK as a signed, limited edition serigraph in 2000.
Collector's Notes:
Lambda Print
Each color photograph was printed to order in the UK and then hand-signed by Storm Thorgerson. When he passed away, he did not leave an archive of these prints behind, only the handful that he had pre-printed and signed for exhibition remained available in our inventory.
Occasionally we may also have one available for resale from a private collector.
The individual print details are below, please contact us for the latest availability.
20" x 30" Sheet Size
Signed, Open Edition
Lambda Digital C-Type Print - SOLD OUT
Serigraph Print
The entire edition was printed and signed at the time by Storm Thorgerson. Several were also signed by Aubrey Powell.
This serigraph edition is one of the most popular limited edition prints from the entire Hipgnosis catalog, there are very very few available. Please contact us for details!
25" x 33" Paper Size
17" x 23" Image Size
Signed, Limited Edition (295)
Serigraph Print on Paper - EXTREMELY RARE