Documentary Review: 'Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis)

Squaring the Circle (The Story of of Hipgnosis) (2023)

Directed by Anton Corbijn

Written by Trish D. Chetty

Starring Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Robert Plant, Paul McCartney

Release Date June 7th, 2023

Published June June 1st, 2023

For many, their first idea of art, what art could be, it's transformative properties, the way it can shape your perception, sprang from seeing a striking image on the cover of an album. I can distinctly recall seeing the cover of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here in a friend's record collection when I was 10 years old and being fascinated by the image of a man on fire shaking hands with another man who was not on fire. It's an image both striking and yet simple, the notion that the record industry can burn an artist with a handshake and a smile.

Regardless of what this image says about the band or the music on the record, that cover, and so many more esoteric, bizarre, and compelling images, helped to shape many young minds. That particular image that dazzled my young mind was created by the most prolific and influential graphic designers in the history of the music business, Hip-gnosis, the team of Aubrey Powell and Storm Thorgerson. Starting at University in the mid-1960s, Storm and Po were an inseparable team. Each taught the other different aspects of design and photography and their ideas blossomed from a shared love of turning reality and sense on their heads.

Director Anton Corbijn is among many who can count Hipgnosis as a major influence on their work. A music video director, Corbijn is uniquely qualified to document the history and fascination surrounding the legendary art pioneers at Hipgnosis. He does just that with the remarkable, exhaustive and terrific new documentary Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis). Through exclusive interviews with Storm and Po and the giants of the music industry who employed them, we get to learn the fascinating stories behind the most talked about, remembered, and beloved album covers in the history of music.

From the late 1960s through the early 80s, Hipgnosis was the go-to team for creating album art so good that it could sell records on its own merit. If you're a fan of Pink Floyd, then you can thank Hipgnosis for creating the images you've always associated with Pink Floyd. The cover of Dark Side of the Moon? That was Hipgnosis. That wonderful photo of a cow on the cover of Atom Heart Mother? That was Hipgnosis. That tripped out cover for 1968's A Saucerful of Secrets, Hipgnosis. I could go on and on but you should just see Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) for yourself.

Storm Thorgerson emerges as a fascinating character, a cantankerous, unpredictable and often rude man who earned the love, loyalty and enmity of the biggest rock stars in the world with his blunt assessment of their artistic desires. He had a habit of walking off Hipgnosis projects if he felt the artist wasn't listening to him or exerting too much control over the idea. He loved working with the band 10 CC, a rare band that let Storm loose to make his weirdest and often most expensive ideas come to life.

A great story has 10 CC's record company flying Storm to Hawaii, having a psychiatrists couch specially made, and wasting a days worth of a very large budget trying to get a sheep to lay still on the couch on an empty Hawaiian beach. Storm got the picture that he wanted and then, in act of perversity that must have tickled only himself, he pitched putting the picture on the cover in the size of a polaroid, set deep and at a distance amid the rest of the album art. He was overruled in the end. The picture was the full sleeve of 10 CC's Look Hear.

Po, the far more diplomatic and open-minded of the pair, is also not shy about having spent record company money. He may have been more amenable to the ideas of famous rock stars than his partner, but it was Po who oversaw a shoot for Pink Floyd's live record where a very expensive day of shooting ended with a giant inflatable pig having to be shot down out of the jetway by fighter pilots. These are just some of the stories in Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis). There are numerous equally fascinating and entertaining stories told by titans like Paul McCartney, Roger Waters, and David Gilmour, among many, many others.

Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) will be shown on June 7th in New York City at the Film Forum and follow up with a showing on June 16th in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Royal. The plan is for the movie to receive a wide release on June 20th though how wide the release will be is unknown. The film is being distributed by Utopia and they have yet to announce when the digital release of Squaring the Circle will be.

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