Back in 1995 or 1996 I took a photograph on the corner of Euclid and Pine in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, MO. I used to get my film processed at a lab near there when I still lived in town. I probably took it to finish a roll of film before dropping it off. That picture, or actually a bastardized version of it, was used on the cover of a compilation record called “Don’t Forget to Breathe” put out by Crank Records in 1997. I kind of remember getting an email from their mailing list asking if anyone had pictures of buildings that they could see to possibly be used on a new record they were putting out. I sent several prints and they ended up using this one. I of course was never paid, but did receive free records from them for a couple of years and credit in the liner notes. When I saw the final cover, I was kind of irritated as they added that terrible fake sky and kind of stretched out the photo. The letter pressed 12″ version looked better though. I never got my print back and I have no idea where the negative is.
This summer I was back in St. Louis to meet up with my brother for his bachelor party. I had breakfast with my parents in the Central West End one morning and then decided to walk around and shoot for a while. I found myself on the corner of Euclid and Pine and I remembered that photo I had taken there 14 or 15 years earlier and thought it might be funny to retake it. I finally got around to scanning the film from that trip yesterday and found it. It’s not really that great a photo, but it reminded me of those days. If nothing else I can at least try to take it back from the terrible cover design.
Fake sky aside… best compilation album ever created? Yes.