from I Music Interview with photographer Kevin Westenberg
This James photo is an extremely striking photo that I’ve always admired because you chose to put it very small but you also chose to put it in the book.
KW: The main reason that I put it in was because I was trying to decide, I had to go through everything and decide, what types of work people know me for vs. what things I really like. That was one of the albums that got big in America and because this thing is being slightly geared towards America, as well as England and Europe, I had to make a decision between all these things about what to put in. Originally I was just going to put in totally obscure things that only I like, but then I thought well that kind of defeats the purpose — you’re denying people photos that people might know you for. So I kind of compromised on this, and that ended small for various reasons having to do with layout and not really needing to put it much bigger because people have seen it as well. And it worked well with this with this sort of layout.
Do you like that photograph?
KW: Yeah, I do. I think color wise and compositionally it works. My favourite part is the white light on Tim Booth’s feet, because he’s the singer and he’s sort of the leader. He’s barefoot, so it’s kind of a Jesus image. I think it works compositionally as well. It’s a strange thing — I didn’t think it would work when we did it. I was pretty much against the dresses. I just thought, “Well, we’ll try a few and see what it’s like.” Inside I was thinking this is really naff. But we were in Marseilles, and it’s beautiful out, everyone’s happy, and it worked.
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