The Joshua Tree By Anton Corbijn
Photographer Anton Corbijn and art director Steve Averill tell Steve Fairclough about creating the cover for this U2 album
In March 1987 Irish rock group U2 released their landmark album The Joshua Tree – it was 50 minutes and 11 seconds of searing, anthemic, emotional music, influenced by the band’s experiences in North and Central America. Songs like With or Without You remain as fresh as when they were written, as does the iconic album sleeve, which combined the black & white photography of Anton Corbijn with the art direction of long-time U2 collaborator Steve Averill.
One of the core philosophies of the album was the idea that music could give a sense of place. In the Classic Albums TV documentary about The Joshua Tree, U2 guitarist The Edge explains, ‘At the time of the first songwriting demo sessions, [lead singer] Bono started talking
about America and particularly the desert of south-western America as a kind of like location and a metaphor. We’d talked about the cinematic aspect of music, where music can really evoke a landscape and a place and can really bring you there.’
That cinematic aspect was to seep into Corbijn’s photography as he hired a panoramic camera to help with the shoots, which were in November 1986. Averill says, ‘There were a couple of working titles, one was The Two Americas and the idea was somewhere where the desert and uncivilised America meets the civilised America. Working with such a great photographer as Anton Corbijn… you don’t tell Anton what to do or argue with him about where we’re going with the whole thing.’
Corbijn had gone out to Los Angeles a week before the rest of the party to scout possible locations. He recalls, ‘The night after the first day’s shooting, I went out with Bono and
said, “You know, there’s a tree here I really love – it’s called the Joshua tree and it would be a brilliant idea to have that on the front and then the band would be on the back, like a continuation of a shot.” Bono came down the [next] morning and had looked up the Joshua tree in the bible and it meant a lot to him. He thought that should probably be a title for an album. We went out to look for the trees and, amazingly, we found this beautiful tree standing on its own because this tree normally grows in big groups and it’s incredible to find a tree on its own.’
Averill adds, ‘The only two places where Joshua trees appear to grow is in the desert in California and in the Holy Land. In the Holy Land they thought the Joshua trees were like Joshua holding his hands up to the Lord, so that’s why it got the name. We were driving along this highway and Anton suddenly shouted from the back of the bus, “Stop, stop!” He said, “There’s a tree over there and it’s on its own and you very rarely see that tree on its own.” This was 6 or 7 in the morning and it was very cold. As we were about halfway across the desert to this tree, the bus driver leaned out and said, “Hey, watch out, there’s rattlesnakes over there!” Everybody froze. Then he said, “It’s probably okay at this time in the morning – it’s too cold for them!” So, we carried on.’
Clothes and weather
The band was wearing clothes sourced from a costumier in east LA, which Averill says, ‘were inspired by what pioneers might have worn in the 1890s or 1900s. If you went in and there was a jacket you liked that was a genuine relic, their department would make you up a copy. That’s why Edge has the cowboy hat and so on – it was leaning
towards that kind of feel of Americana.’
Averill notes, ‘On the gatefold you see Bono in a singlet and he was kind of forcing everybody to look like we’re in the middle of the desert in the summer when, in fact, it was pretty damn cold. They didn’t want to stay too long in any location but that was photographed [with the tree]. It was on a different shoot that we went to at Zabriskie Point (in Death Valley) and that’s where the front cover was photographed.’
Corbijn explains, ‘For the Joshua Tree shoot I used a Horizont camera, Russian-made, and now called Horizon. It is a panoramic camera and it was my first time using it after shooting one roll at the Sunset Marquis [Hotel in LA]. But I clearly had not got 100% control over it, hence the mirror in the shot and the band being out of focus with the tree sharp.’ The mirror Corbijn is referring to was on-set so the band could check how they looked, but Averill left it on the ground, thinking it would be out of shot.
Averill adds, ‘Anton would have a couple of cameras – one with colour film and one with black & white. Most of the film he shot in the early days was black & white but we had requirements for colour for the magazines, so he was shooting colour as well.’ Corbijn reveals, ‘The film I’ve used since I was 18 is Kodak Tri-X. The other camera I used at the time was a [35mm] Nikon F.’
Going widescreen
After the shoots in America were wrapped Averill brought the work back to his studio in Dublin, Ireland. ‘I sat down with all of the contact sheets later and because the music was becoming a lot more widescreen in its content, I wanted that to be reflected in the sleeve… to have those black bands top and bottom.’
Averill adds, ‘A couple of very early designs have only landscape on them, but it was felt that they [the record company] needed the band to be in the picture. I came up with three or four ideas and then Anton [Corbijn] came to Dublin and we all sat down together. The band’s contribution was great; they were really focused. Paul McGuinness, U2’s manager, would sit in but wouldn’t dominate; he’d just say, “I like that one” or whatever. Essentially me, Anton and the band were the key components of [deciding] all that artwork.’
In fact, U2’s deal with Island Records meant they delivered the master tape of the music when they delivered the artwork. Averill recalls, ‘Anton is a master printer and he always knew exactly what he wanted to do. When we decided what pictures we were going to use he would simply get large prints done. On The Joshua Tree it was bench artwork; there was no scanning.’
Averill concludes, ‘When you sit down to design something you’re trying to make it as powerful as possible and I thought we’d achieved that before Joshua Tree went out [on release]. I wanted the sleeve to look like if you picked it up 20 years ago or today it would still be as strong. U2 were always good fun. Anton is seen as a serious photographer but to be with him is a hoot – it’s really a good exchange of ideas, so it was great fun to be on The Joshua Tree shoot. But, they were looking for a very serious image because the content of the album was serious – it wasn’t throwaway.’
Special thanks to Steve Averill and Anton Corbijn for their help with this article. To find out more go to: www.stephenaverill.com