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Brian GriffinJoe Jackson - Look Sharp, 1979 - Vintage gelatin silver print - album cover1979
1979
About the Item
Brian Griffin
Joe Jackson - Look Sharp, 1979
Vintage Gelatin Silver Print, Framed; museum mount board, antireflective art glass, oak frame
Image size; 11 4/5 × 15 7/10 in 30 × 40 cm Frame: 44 x 54 cm
This 1979 photograph was shot for the album cover of Joe Jackson’s first album Look Sharp! featuring one of Jackson's most well-known songs. This photograph, showing a pair of white shoes, ranked number 22 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 greatest album covers of all time. Brian Griffin recalls his experience of this photo shoot with Joe Jackson: “I asked Joe to stand in the sunlight. I then took my Olympus OM1 camera and pressed the shutter. This is truly the easiest and most famous album cover that I have ever shot.”
This is the original vintage silver gelatin print of 'Joe Jackson - Look Sharp' 1979;
#rare print
Widely exhibited in the original frame and available for purchase
ABOUT the image:
"Look Sharp: - from an interview with Brian Griffin by Terry Rawlings, POP 2017;
TR: Joe Jackson's Look Sharp album is, to my mind and many others, one of your most iconic cover shots. It's instantly recognisable even if like me you don't own the record. Which is an incredible achievement when you think about it?
BG: I hired a pale blue Ford Escort to pick up Joe. I remember we parked at Waterloo and went and munch on hamburgers at the Wimpy Bar at Waterloo Station. It's just a short walk to South Bank from there, so we headed off in that direction. When we got there, I saw in an instant a shaft of sunlight shining between the concrete I told Joe to quickly 'stand there'. Click with my Olympus OM1 and that was that, it was all over in five minutes.
Joe had on those now famous white winklerpicker shoes from Shelley's Shoes on Carnaby Street and that was the shot. Joe refused to ever work with me after that!
TR: Why on earth? That was a hit album and everybody knows that image!
BG: Joe hated that cover, hated the fact that his face wasn't on the sleeve and vowed never to work with me again, and he never did! Once the album was released and it was such a hot, I remember I had these girls come up and kiss me. They felt it was the greatest album cover ever.
TR: You made the most of those shoes, didn't you? No wonder he didn't use you again! It could have been a mannequin.
About the Photographer:
Brian Griffin (born 13 April 1948 in Birmingham; died 27 January 2024 in London) was widely acknowledged as one of the most prominent British photographers of his generation, constantly working on new materials and still pushing boundaries of contemporary photography until the end.
He was famous for his ground-breaking approach to portraiture from Iggy Pop to Kate Bush, and numerous high profile projects stretching from 'Work' in the 1980's to his project charting 'The Road to 2012', commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery. 'Work' went on to be awarded the Best Photography book in the World at the Barcelona Primavera Fotografica 1991 and The Life magazine used the photograph "A Broken Frame" on its front cover of a special supplement "The Greatest Photographs Of The 80's".
Throughout his career, over twenty monographs of Griffin's work have been published, his work has been the subject of over fifty international solo exhibitions and is held in institutional collections including the Victoria & Albert Museum, London; the Arts Council of Great Britain, London; the British Council, London; the National Portrait Gallery, London; the Museum Folkwang, Essen; the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery; the Art Museum Reykjavík, Iceland; the Mast Foundation, Bologna; and the Museu da Imagem, Braga, Portugal.
In 2009, Brian Griffin became the patron of FORMAT Festival and in 2013 he received the Centenary Medal from the Royal Photographic Society in recognition of a lifetime achievement in photography, and the following year he received an honorary doctorate from Birmingham City University for his lifetime contribution to his home city.
"I think that Brian is one of the most interesting portrait photographers ever. His portrait photography belongs to another time. Portrait photography today is like so simple, so straightforward, so it seems that all photography portraits are alike. Brian is different and Brian has a craziness in him - a craziness in a way to see the world, and intensity that belongs only to him."
Francois Hébel, Director, Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson (present), Director, Les Rencontres d'Arles (1986-1987, 2001-2014), in the documentary by Michael Prince; The Surreal Lives of Brian Griffin, 2018
Shipping: The framed print would be crated for overseas shipping with curb-side delivery by courier. Free delivery in London area and some UK destinations.
- Creator:Brian Griffin (1948, British)
- Creation Year:1979
- Dimensions:Height: 11.82 in (30 cm)Width: 15.75 in (40 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:London, GB
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1967214177122
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