What this image says about photography.

I have chosen to talk about the above image by British graphic designer, Strom Thorgerson. This was featured as the cover for Deepest Blues 1994 hit ‘Is it a sin’.
As always with Storm, his images are thought provoking and can be interpreted in various ways.
There are many facts and elements to the image but no definitive with the image as a whole, this is left for the viewer to ponder. 
We have a figure we must assume is female due to the wisps of long hair in the top left-hand corner and the fact they are wearing a summer dress. The ‘woman’ is holding a broken frame with a man walking through the break and he is set in the background.
To me this photo is urging the viewer to abandon conformity and break out of the mould, or, frame in this instance. 
The use of a frame within the frame of the actual image potentially represents the world we live in and by having someone walking out of it could imply a number of things. Is the figure walking away from a relationship with the figure in the foreground? Is Storm suggesting that relationships are for show and ‘hanging on the wall’. Therefore, is he suggesting we must ‘break away’ from these relationships from the distance between the two and the obvious break in the frame.

The placement of the assumed male in the background could imply that she has left him behind which confirms the feeling of tension in the image. Although his placing adds distance to the narrative it was more likely for the visual logistics of him appearing to have walked from inside the gold frame.
The framing of the shot gives the image a poetic narrative which goes hand in hand with music which also tells a narrative in a poetic way through the use of lyrics.
The shot is taken from Thorgerson’s perspective and he only allows us to see what he wants us to, what happens when the walking figure leaves the scene is purely guess work. These are all things we will never know due to very nature of photography, once that moment in time is captured it is instantly history.
The interesting thing about photography is its ability to capture all of the other art forms, you can photograph text, a painted image, a statue or a musician on stage. 

This crossing of formats was something that suited Storm’s work, the music inspired him to create thoughtful images which made him valued by musicians, especially conceptual ones. 

This is similar to how a movie set designer could be inspired by the words in a book or a musician inspired to write a song by a painting or photograph.
When we look at the question of what is photography I believe this photo epitomises what a photo is, the ability to tell a story by freezing a moment in time, regardless of whether the moment is staged or not. They do say a picture paints a thousand words, Storm Thorgerson was a brilliant wordsmith, with a camera.