queen of the slipstream : the van morrison story

in 1987 i was delighted to be asked to shoot the cover photo for van morrison’s upcoming album poetic champions compose. van, who famously hated having his picture taken, would not be featured on the cover of the jazz-infused album, and he didn’t attend any of the discussions, but the agreed-upon vision was for a medium format photo of rolling hills, with a stream in the foreground. obviously, I suggested ireland, but van quickly rejected that idea.

after spending three days driving solo around the peak district and the lake district with a rented hasselblad, hunting down and photographing rolling hills and streams, but without the benefit of listening to the pre-release cassette of the album that I’d requested, I delivered a set of what I considered to be beautiful black and white photos to the record company. a few days later I heard that van was unhappy, and wanted to know why I didn’t shoot the photos in ireland. he also wanted to know why the photos didn’t sound like his saxy songs, which of course i hadn’t yet heard.

as his record company refused point blank to pay for another photo shoot unless van consented to be photographed, there was an impasse, until eventually van relented, and so it was that we assembled at the poky and bland victoria studio on june 7th 1987. van was, of course, uncomfortable in his clothes, in his skin, and in my photos, and for some reason i never moved the ugly palms in the background, but fortunately the creative director made the album cover look quite acceptable.

although the experience of meeting and shooting van morrison was decidedly unnerving, at the end of the session, as he walked past me on his way out into the streets of victoria, he leaned over and said, thank you. that was less painful than I thought it would be.”