I had a totally blank check on this album cover. When I met with the client, I was given only the artist’s name and album title, nothing more. They simply shrugged when I inquired as to what they wanted on the cover. Was there a picture of Marty Reese? No. Did they want me to photograph him? No. Was anybody photographing him? No. “The trouble with that is, uh, actually, there is no Marty Reese.” Huh? As I came to understand it, this was a project done purely as some sort of tax write-off. I suppose some might have taken that dispiriting news and just knocked something out quickly and been done with it. Not me. It’s not every day you get any sort of control in the record business, and I set out to see what I could do. I composed this image with my grandfather’s watch, my own hand, and a handkerchief. I suppose the idea was rather prosaic and flat, but I was a very young man then and at the time more interested in practicing the expression of ideas than in worrying about the underlying ideas themselves.

What: Art direction, design, original black & white photography and hand-tinting
For: Record album cover, Marty Reese, “I Just Don't Have the Time”
Client: Cameo Records, Album World, a division of International Record Distributing Associates
When: mid 1970s