Alice In Chains’ iconic Facelift recently celebrated its 30th anniversary, with the band releasing unseen versions of the album cover. Photographer Rocky Schenck recently discussed how he changed Layne Staley and other members’ faces.
“Thirty years ago, Alice in Chains ‘Facelift’ was released, and I spent three days shooting the band in various locations around Los Angeles – a sulfur manufacturing company, the swimming pool of their hotel, and my studio – and we had a BLAST! For the cover, photographed on film, I used a labor-intensive old-fashioned process called ‘in-camera multiple exposures.’
I first shot Mike Starr’s face in silhouette, then spotlighted each eye, his nose, and his mouth and added his features back on to his face via additional exposures on the same piece of film – no darkroom tricks, and no Photoshop.
I spent all day and night in my studio shooting each band member with this process, distorting their faces and creating entirely new faces utilizing Layne’s mouth, Jerry’s left eye, Mike’s right eye, and Sean’s nose. I’ve heard a rumor that the album was entitled ‘Facelift’ because of my cover image, but who knows?!
The second black and white photo illustrates the image in my portfolio that Alice saw, and which inspired this cover. I had been experimenting on my friends for years, distorting their facial features via multiple exposures, but only in black and white. ‘Facelift’ was the first time I utilized this process in color. A couple of years later, I used it again on the Cramps ‘Eyeball in My Martini’, and I’ve included an outtake from that shoot.”
