STACK #255 January 2026

MUSIC FEATURE

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WISH YOU WERE HERE TURNS 50 This year, Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here celebrates its 50th anniversary. STACK spoke with Aubrey Powell, the genius behind the album’s revered photography. Words: Paul Jones V I N Y L V I T A L

“Hi. Which one is Pink?” With Pink Floyd soaring high off the success of 1973’s Dark Side of the Moon , this was how the band’s US record label at Capitol Records first introduced themselves. The ignominious greeting would prompt Roger Waters to write Have a Cigar . “You’ve got to remember that the music business then is not what it is now,” says Aubrey Powell, one half of Hipgnosis, the renowned ‘70s creative agency responsible for some of the most iconic album covers ever created. “It was all formal suits and ties. They were insincere. All they were interested in was number one albums and singles – they just wanted hit after hit. “They weren’t really interested in the mental health of bands. They just pushed them to make as much money for the record label as possible.” Powell and business partner Storm Thorgerson had met Pink Floyd at university in Cambridge, and Hipgnosis was born when the band asked them to design the artwork for their second album, A Saucerful of Secrets . “We first listened to Wish You Were Here in a very rough state, at Abbey Road with the band for the first time,” says Powell. “The theme running through the album and lyrics was absence. And insincerity; insincere people. We tried to think of an image that would lend itself as a reflection of the music business.” For the cover art, Powell jumped on a plane to Los Angeles to meet stuntman Ronnie Rondell, an expert at fire stunts who had worked on The Towering Inferno . Rondell had only agreed to do the job on the back lot of Warner Bros. Studios, where the

in the afternoon, the wind died completely, and all the ripples disappeared. “The lighting was amazing”, Powell continues, “And I knew right then I had the perfect shot. There was no digital photography in those days; you couldn’t retouch things. There was no retouching on that shot at all. “It’s completely real and one of the best photographs I’ve ever taken.” Wish You Were Here remains a bruised elegy to a lost genius and industry rot. It shaped grief to grandeur, connecting emotionally with the fan community through the band’s honesty, loss and resistance to the superficial music industry. This masterpiece has stood the test of time. “Every single picture on Wish You Were Here was deliberately designed specifically for the album colour and taken from the lyrics and the concept of the album,” outlines Powell. “I can remember when we first showed the band what our ideas for the cover were. I drew up all these sketches on, you know, A4 paper with a pencil. “Storm (Thorgerson) told the band we were ready to show them, so we went to the Abbey Road canteen and about 50 people turned up! Roger Waters had called everyone to see their reaction. “Storm was very nervous, but he gave the presentations using the rough bits of people, and we got a round of applause at the end. “Roger simply said ‘Go and do it’, and that was that. “I think the cover is my favourite Pink Floyd cover we did. For me

you see the flames predominantly behind him in the photograph,” remembers Powell. “It was a dangerous stunt because he was covered in napalm! I shot the photo 15 times, but then the wind came up and turned the flame onto his face. His moustache and eyebrows were singed, and he dived onto the floor where he was covered in blankets and sprayed.” “He immediately got up and said, ‘That’s it, I’m not doing any more,’” chuckles Powell. “But I knew I had the shot.” The remaining images had to reflect absence, so Powell took a small plane and flew to Northern California to look for suitable lakes. “I found this lake called Mono with these amazing stalagmites and thought, ‘This is it.’ “We found a stuntman who could hold his breath for two minutes and stand on his head using a specially made yoga chair. “I was in a small aluminium boat when I found the right location, but it was too windy to shoot. And then, around five o’clock

I THINK THE COVER IS MY FAVOURITE PINK FLOYD COVER WE DID. FOR ME PERSONALLY, THERE WERE SOME MAGICAL MOMENTS DOING IT

Aubrey Powell

necessary safety equipment was on hand in case something went awry. “He wanted a big fan in front of him so that it would blow the flames behind him - that’s why

personally, there were some magical moments doing it.”

24 JANUARY 2026

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