Photos

Photos for Reflections were taken across three different sessions in Ohio, New York, and Tennessee. All photos were taken by Elizabeth Rakhilkina.

Session I: Ohio

—

Initially my idea for the cover of the record was to have a photo of me looking into a mirror, my reflection manipulated to look different from my actual features. Something akin to the Picasso painting, Girl Before A Mirror. Many of the people that I shared this idea with told me that it was too on the nose for an album called Reflections; however, I foolishly persisted. In the fall of 2017, armed with a film camera from the 1970s, Elizabeth and I met up in my home state, Ohio, to take our first stab at the cover. We took photos of me looking into a mirror while paddling a canoe, photos of me kneeling in front of mirrors in my grandparent’s backyard, and more. As you can see, only a few of these survived our scrutiny. And none of them felt quite right.

Session II: New York

—

Having decided that the photos we’d taken in Ohio weren’t right for the cover, and since I was already in New York to shoot the video for “Parting Gifts”, I asked Elizabeth to take more photos of me looking into mirrors in both her apartment and the apartment of her then-boyfriend, now-husband, Austin. This session felt a bit more successful. It was the spring of 2018, we were in the city where we’d met, and we were in a somewhat more collaborative mood. For awhile I even thought that the photo with the red curtain pulled back behind the mirror might be the one. But, when I showed it to those close to me, their reactions were essentially the same: it’s a good photo, but not the right photo for the cover. Perhaps I needed to stop looking at myself in the mirror and start looking at something bigger.

Session III: Tennessee

—

Finally, in the fall of 2018, in the state of American music — in my adoptive home, Nashville — we got the photo. It’s none of the photos I’ve displayed above or anywhere else on this site (sorry), but it was Elizabeth’s idea a long time ago, and then later on it was someone else’s idea, too. And finally I realized that they were both right, this was the photo we had to go with. It’s the perfect image for an album about growing the fuck up. Hopefully, when you see it you’ll think so, too. If not, well, no one asked you anyway.