First published in 1997, this fourth edition of Mind Over Matter was released in 2007 to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the band’s first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. The new material in this edition starts with the 30th anniversary SACD of Dark Side of the Moon and covers calendars, the Pulse DVD, 2006 advertising, the Wish You Were Here SACD, and Roger Waters 2006 DSOTM tour.
Its co-author Storm Thorgerson is a well-known English graphic designer and was a member of the graphic art group Hipgnosis, which was founded in 1968 and disbanded in 1983. Specializing in creating album cover art, his work is most closely associated with Pink Floyd, with some of the band members being childhood friends. In school, he was a year behind Roger Waters and a year ahead of Syd Barrett. He first worked with Pink Floyd “when another friend failed to do the cover for their second album, Saucerful of Secrets.” His association has continued through to their last release the box set Oh, By The Way.
Thorgerson’s mainly worked with photography and in an interview explained, “I like photography because it is a reality medium, unlike drawing which is unreal. I like to mess with reality... to bend reality. Some of my works beg the question of is it real or not? I use real elements in unreal ways. Is the man really on fire? Why would he just be standing there? Who put the beds on the beach? Why? Why is there a cow on the cover? It doesn’t have anything to do with the album, or does it?”
Mind Over Matter serves as an excellent exhibition catalog of Thorgerson’s work and a history of the band. He reveals in great detail the origination of the ideas and their execution. For example, he explains how the theme of absence from WYWH was created in the album imagery, such as the man diving into the lake with the splash absent and on later packaging the man swimming through the desert who has an absence of awareness and purpose.
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