ANNIE LENNOX

Annie Lennox Unveils Album Cover -- Photo Is Self-Portrait

May 2003 (Newstream) -- The striking album cover for "BARE" and all other related imagery, has been created by Annie Lennox herself, working with the graphic artist Allan Martin.

"I love the visual aspect of things, and have worked with so many photographers over the years," she says. "Although the results can be stunning, the fact remains that you meet them for the first time, work with them for a day, and are 'done' by them, without any input from yourself apart from your presence and cooperation. I didn't want to be that passive thing any more. I wanted to create all the imagery myself, without any filtering through or interfacing with other people. And it's been so immensely satisfying, all this experimentation. There's been a real sense of freedom."

"This is just by means of a small description to illustrate my thoughts and feelings about the particular image I've chosen for the album cover. This album contains songs that are deeply personal and emotional. In a sense I have 'exposed' myself through the work to reveal aspects of an inner world which are fragile...broken through experience, but not entirely smashed. I am not a young artist in their early twenties. I am a mature woman facing up to 'core' issues. I don't want to represent myself visually in some kind of clichéd, airbrushed, saccharine kind of way. I want to reveal myself as I am. For me this is a powerful and courageous statement. I have never been known to 'toe the safety line,' in terms of how I represent myself. As an artist, I need to be authentic... to take risks... to break the mould when necessary. The 'posture' of the image refers back to the earlier days of Eurythmics with the 'TOUCH' cover, only this time I have now turned to face the audience eye to eye, as it were. I am as 'BARE' as the title suggests, though not entirely exposed. The image is timeless, genderfree, and racially ambiguous. I could be a statue, a ghostly apparition, or an Indian saddhu. The false lashes represent the artifice of 'performance.' The colour has been drained from my mouth (where the words and sounds issue from) to saturate the title with redness (signifying lifeforce and anger). I hope it makes sense to you. Love, Annie."