Pink Floyd have shared a long history with Hipgnosis beginning with A Saucerful Of Secrets. "Īs for the original photoshoot Website Brain Damage reported "On December 3rd, a second attempt to photograph the pig balloon over Battersea Power Station was cut short when the porcine dirigible broke loose and headed for friendlier skies, winding up over Southeast England after being refused permission to land at Heathrow Airport! Hipgnosis had designed the first cover only to have it rejected by Pink Floyd after three shooting sessions they had enough material to construct the now famous cover.
It is still recognizable as a homage to 'Animals' but the decay adds an extra layer of melancholy. However, I was able to strip the image together using Photoshop. To catch a flying pig (thrown in the air rather than flown as the real one had been) required split second timing and the camera was not up to it. This was a challenging test for the Panasonic camera I was given by the BBC. My idea was to reproduce the cover by legendary designer Storm Thorgerson.
Photographed as a homage in 2006 to the Pink Floyd album cover 'Animals' for the BBC series ' Britain In Pictures', photographer Jill Furmanovsky recalls of this image (above) "I had always been intrigued by the place and jumped at the opportunity to see the building properly. The album's cover image, a pig floating between two chimneys of the Battersea Power Station was conceived by the band's bassist and lead songwriter Roger Waters, and was designed by long-time collaborator Storm Thorgerson of Hipgnosis. 'Animals' was recorded at the band's studio, Britannia Row.
It was an iconic a concept album with lyrics that provided a scathing critique of the social-political conditions of late-70s Britain, and presented a marked change in musical style from their earlier work. 'Animals' was Pink Floyd's tenth album which was released on 23 January 1977. © Jill Furmanovsky (to buy this limited edition photo see below)