Open edition digital fine art print made from the original photograph. Printed using archival inks on Hahnemuhle photo rag 188 fine art paper. This photo is an alternate image shot at the cover photo session for Pink Floyd's "Piper at the Gates of Dawn".
Overall print size (A2) is 23.5"w x 16.5"h. Signed by the photographer, Vic Singh. Unmatted/unframed - click here for optional framing choices
Pink Floyd has been associated with a number of the best-known artists and illustrators throughout the years, including Storm Thorgerson/Hipgnosis (who created covers for Dark Side of the Moon, Wish You Were Here and many others) and Gerald Scarfe (creator of the amazing imagery used for The Wall’s packaging and stage show).
After they had reached a certain degree of fame (i.e., right after their first album), they did not appear on the cover of any other album, but in 1967, it was an “industry standard” to feature a photograph of the recording artist on the cover, and so London photographer Vic Singh has the distinction of having shot the image that turned out to be the only one that featured the band – and that featured the soon-to-be-sacked Syd Barrett. Vic, too, was interested in creating something unusual (and “psychedelic”) for this commission, and the result was an image that represented the “vibe” of the time exceptionally well.
According to Vic - "They loved the photos and Syd got inspired to create the back of the album cover. It had been a beautiful day – as had the day before the shoot and the day after – I attribute it to Flower Power!"
Regarding this "Alternate" shot - "Black & white printing in the darkroom has been an integral part of my photographic experience. I wanted to include some black and white images along with the color ones in the Piper set of photographs. Rather than have a straight B&W or overall sepia tone for this Alternate, I wanted a unique psychedelic B&W print.
To achieve this I created a soft transparent two color tint, shaped like prism-pyramid in the centre of the image. It is quite subtle - I did not want it to be solid but, rather, ethereal. The B&W is overlaid with a thin copper tone to blend the B&W and color tints."
Vic Singh - Oct 2007
2007 marks the 40th anniversary of the world’s introduction to the recorded music of Pink Floyd. Clubgoers in London had been treated to the band’s psychedelic blues and instrumentals - with 20 minute jams of “Interstellar Overdrive” and ground-breaking lightshows the highlights of a typical concert event – but it was their first singles, “Arnold Layne” and “See Emily Play”, released early in 1967, that introduced the song-writing capabilities of Syd Barrett to a wider listening audience. The singles had done pretty respectably in the U.K. charts and the band was keen on trying out new technologies in the studio. As it was that Barrett – the chief songwriter and singer – was also quite fond of LSD, it only made sense that their first full-length effort, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (whose title was adapted from a chapter in a fondly-remembered book – The Wind in the Willows – from Barrett’s childhood), would both employ these new technologies to craft songs and experimental musical tracks and also be altered by drugs to the point that they were considered “spacey” and “hallucinogenic” in nature.
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