Although the images for Higher Lovers began in Florence with Cosmo, the main images for the Higher Lovers album came from a visit to Barcelona in February 2019.
The cover photo is an edit of a photograph I took inside the Sagrada Familia, Antoni Gaudi's famous, still unfinished, cathedral. The stained glass and the light as it refracts through it is as uplifting and inspirational as any sight in that amazing place. The columns of the Basilica are carved like trees, to give the interior an organic feel which also lifts the spirit.
The inside photograph is of the Montjuic Communications Tower, which is part of the Olympic Park on the Montjuic Mountain. The venues are essentially empty, a rather sad, ghostly presence, only a feint reminder of glories past. I tend to shoot a lot in monochrome as it lends a timeless elegance to images and can evoke an uncanny, even haunting reaction from the viewer.
An image which did not make the album cover but which is reproduced below is of one of the large guns at the castle which look out to sea but also onto the city below. It's startling when one reads the inscriptions to learn that these guns fired not just out to sea at invaders, but on the city and its inhabitants to quell rebellion. A metaphor for how easily we can lose freedoms: something which is all too relevant today and will be even more so in the weeks/months to come.
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