Anton Corbijn (dir.), Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) (trailer)
Look, I'm a compulsive reader. As a teenager that meant I read CD liner notes, and I remembered things like the album artist credits on Pink Floyd albums for "Storm Thorgerson" (Lapse of Reason) or "Hipgnosis" (Dark Side, Wish You Were Here). At some point I learned that these were pretty much the same person: Hipgnosis was Thorgerson's design studio, specializing in album covers.
When I heard that there was a documentary on Hipgnosis I said "huh, might be interesting" and pulled it up. I hadn't realised it was done by Anton Corbijn until I saw his name in the opening credits. It took me a bit to remember where I knew his name from, too: photo credits for U2's The Joshua Tree.
Most of Squaring the Circle consists of filmed interviews with a couple dozen people who were involved with Hipgnosis. They're shot exactly like the Joshua Tree photos: black and white, high contrast, skillful use of shadow and light sourcing. I adore chiaroscuro so this is entirely my jam. The parts that aren't interviews, or sometimes archival footage, tend to be Ken-Burns-effect pans and zooms over Hipgnosis's psychedelic artwork, and that's pretty great as well.
Storm Thorgerson's been gone for a decade now, so most of the history's filtered through his co-designer, Aubrey 'Po' Powell. Po's interview clips are interspersed with folks like Paul McCartney and the extant members of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, and occasionally other folks Hipgnosis worked with. Noel Gallagher of Oasis turns up as well, gushing about how awesome records in the sixties and seventies were.
It's all a bit ridiculous: the sheer amount of money being thrown around rock stars, and Po and Storm's savvy at putting themselves in the way of it. Which isn't to say they weren't making some stunning artwork as well. But the wild scale of the whole thing, tens of thousands of 1970s UK pounds, all for a twelve-inch-square image. Amazing.
The documentary closes with this classic exchange:
Visually stunning, occasionally hilarious, and overall a fascinating angle on the UK music industry. Recommended.
Look, I'm a compulsive reader. As a teenager that meant I read CD liner notes, and I remembered things like the album artist credits on Pink Floyd albums for "Storm Thorgerson" (Lapse of Reason) or "Hipgnosis" (Dark Side, Wish You Were Here). At some point I learned that these were pretty much the same person: Hipgnosis was Thorgerson's design studio, specializing in album covers.
When I heard that there was a documentary on Hipgnosis I said "huh, might be interesting" and pulled it up. I hadn't realised it was done by Anton Corbijn until I saw his name in the opening credits. It took me a bit to remember where I knew his name from, too: photo credits for U2's The Joshua Tree.
Most of Squaring the Circle consists of filmed interviews with a couple dozen people who were involved with Hipgnosis. They're shot exactly like the Joshua Tree photos: black and white, high contrast, skillful use of shadow and light sourcing. I adore chiaroscuro so this is entirely my jam. The parts that aren't interviews, or sometimes archival footage, tend to be Ken-Burns-effect pans and zooms over Hipgnosis's psychedelic artwork, and that's pretty great as well.
Storm Thorgerson's been gone for a decade now, so most of the history's filtered through his co-designer, Aubrey 'Po' Powell. Po's interview clips are interspersed with folks like Paul McCartney and the extant members of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, and occasionally other folks Hipgnosis worked with. Noel Gallagher of Oasis turns up as well, gushing about how awesome records in the sixties and seventies were.
It's all a bit ridiculous: the sheer amount of money being thrown around rock stars, and Po and Storm's savvy at putting themselves in the way of it. Which isn't to say they weren't making some stunning artwork as well. But the wild scale of the whole thing, tens of thousands of 1970s UK pounds, all for a twelve-inch-square image. Amazing.
The documentary closes with this classic exchange:
INTERVIEWER (offscreen): Why didn't you use Hipgnosis for your album covers?
NOEL GALLAGHER: (laugh) I couldn't afford them.
Visually stunning, occasionally hilarious, and overall a fascinating angle on the UK music industry. Recommended.