Born in Dartford, Kent in 1944, Thorgerson went to school with Roger Waters and Syd Barrett. His career as an artist began accidentally; around the time of his graduation from the Royal College of Art, Pink Floyd were completing their second album A Saucerful of Secrets, when a friend turned down the job of creating its sleeve. Thorgerson stepped into the fold, later founding the graphic art studio Hipgnosis in 1968 with Aubrey Powell (b.1946). They specialised in creative photography for album covers – the majority designed before the advent of advanced computer design software, and were created through the use of photography, paint and sculpture.

“Since I cannot draw for toffee, I work with photography. But just because I can’t draw, it doesn’t mean I can’t take the flight of the imagination. I like photography because it is a reality medium, unlike drawing, which is unreal. I like to mess with reality. Some of my work asks the question: is it real or not?”

A Surrealist bent lends itself to many of his album designs, and he cited such influences as Man Ray, Magritte, Picasso, Kandinsky, Juan Gris and Ansel Adams. On his working method, he explained: “I listen to the music, read the lyrics, speak to the musicians as much as possible. I see myself as a kind of translator, translating an audio event – the music – into a visual event – the cover. I like to explore ambiguity and contradiction, to be upsetting but gently so. I use real elements in unreal ways.”

Thorgerson went on to design almost every Pink Floyd album sleeve. He also worked on the design of Led Zeppelin’s debut 1969 album (also featured in our exhibition), as well as Ian Dury and the Blockheads, The Steve Miller Band, Muse, 10cc, Syd Barrett, Offspring and The Cranberries. He created StormStudios in the early 1990s which continues his legacy today.

The collection includes Yes’ ‘Going for the One’, released in 1977 and their 8th studio album, designed by Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell.

(By the early 1980s, Hipgnosis had diversified into advertising, designing and producing campaigns for Peugeot, Kronenbourg 1664, Levi Jeans, Volvo, Gillette, Stella Artois, Rank Xerox and The Beatles. Since 1982 Aubrey Powell has been involved in film-making, first as a producer and writer and then as director.)