This reimagined Sgt. Pepper album cover is both brilliant and heartbreaking
He posted the updated image with a touching nod to most recent addition, Harry Leslie Smith.
Really sad to hear campaigner @Harryslaststand has died. Don't let his past be your future. #RIPharry #sgtpepper2018 pic.twitter.com/mOnWTA4qIZ
— christhebarker (@christhebarker) November 28, 2018
He said of the 95-year-old activist, who died on Wednesday,
“His was a moving story and his life made a difference and caused a lot of people to think again about how we treat people.”
The sensitivity involved in making these striking tributes runs even deeper than it first appears. Chris told us about the importance of picking the right image and the difficulty of representing people whose faces were not well known.
“Some people are not instantly visually recognisable but they have still had an impact so they deserve to be included. That’s why sometimes I’ve used a prop instead”
“I couldn’t work out how best to include Nic Roeg but then I realised there was a beautiful symmetry with the 2016 montage if I included a poster for The Man Who Fell to Earth in the place where David Bowie had stood in my original image.”
With that in mind, there is a key to help everyone identify every one of the much-missed gathering.
Unfortunately, for the Barker family, there could have been an additional figure amongst the famous, as Chris’ own mother-in-law passed away this year, but he felt as though she wouldn’t have liked the fuss.
This year’s image almost didn’t happen after Chris vowed to avoid the painstaking task, until he was persuaded by fantastic digital retoucher, Carl Price, who stepped up to help, ensuring the powerful tribute could happen once again. We’re very grateful to both of them.
