It was predicted that music visuals would fade away with the rise of streaming and downloads, yet the aesthetic aspect of music has never held more significance, persisting online as well as occupying our shelves and turntables. Suede’s Dog Man Star, one of the most influential albums of modern times, commemorates 30 years since its debut this year. The album cover was captured by photographer Joanne Leonard in 1971 in Mexico and was later rediscovered by Brett Anderson of the band, who opted to use a version of the artwork for the cover.
Leonard, who documented the American South during the late 1960s but is primarily recognized for her interior photography, is now in her eighties. She has experienced a prolonged career, and her artistic endeavors and teaching have been showcased globally, yet in certain respects, her most well-known image exists in a different realm. Sad Dreams on Cold Mornings is merely one variation of an image she has reworked multiple times, and its role as a significant album cover is yet another chapter in its narrative.
Suede, especially during the period of this album’s launch, were celebrated for music brimming with drama and extravagance crafted within the framework of a hedonistic, artistic lifestyle. They have collaborated with numerous artists including Derek Jarman, Tee Corrine, Nick Knight, Peter Saville, photographer and filmmaker Roger Sargent, and Paul Khera; however, the resonance of this specific image, serendipitously found in a London market, remains unparalleled.
(Image credit: Courtesy of Suede)
“Dog Man Star, the album that the image became the cover for, was an album of emotional fluctuations, a collection exploring disintegration and remorse, drive and failure, both paranoid and romantic, sensual and reflective,” Brett Anderson elucidates. “Sad Dreams on Cold Mornings seemed to articulate these contrasting emotions and resonate with each of them in succession. I’m still very pleased that the image and the music are eternally intertwined.”
The cover image of Dog Man Star features a man sprawled out on a bed, captured from behind, intertwined with snowy, barren trees. The window remains open, inviting the chill into the room. It conjures feelings of sorrow, solitude, and a poignant sensuality that harmonizes with Suede’s music at that time. The photograph was taken by Leonard in 1971 in Mexico as part of her Dreams and Nightmares series, crafted during the disillusionment of her marriage. This foundational photograph has undergone numerous transformations, initially during Leonard’s artistic journey and subsequently as the cover of an album that holds a revered place in music and popular culture.
(Image credit: Courtesy of Suede)
“I suppose it all begins with the fact that the original photograph was taken in a hotel room in Mexico, right? I’ve employed the photograph known as Merida Morning in various works, but it also stands alone as a singular photograph,” Leonard mentions during a video call, noting that she then started to explore the composition and processing through collage and layering.
“I had been producing collage for some time by affixing photographs to the surface of my images, and to create the Dreams and Nightmares series, I was on a mission to discover how I could perhaps place the collage behind the photograph instead, so through the window and the picture frame on the room’s wall.”
Leonard recalls striving to achieve the desired effects by cross-processing the original photograph with a sequence of other images. “I printed the photograph on film, on transparency, so that I could then overlay it onto the collage material, making it partly a technical exercise to realize my vision of a more integrated collage. Nowadays, Photoshop would accomplish this, so it would present a completely different challenge, but those were the tools I had at my disposal and the creative ideas that guided me.”
(Image credit: Courtesy of Suede)
It was this collage technique that captivated Anderson. “I admire the surreal application of double exposure, the manner in which the viewer becomes conscious of the tendrils and the bark of trees overlaying the interior scene, images that enhance texture and introduce additional layers of intrigue and symbolism; a notion that nature and the synthetic have merged, that the boundaries between the two have somehow diminished.”
The outcome was Sad Dreams on Cold Mornings, which Suede’s lead singer Brett Anderson stumbled upon while seeking inspiration during a secondhand shopping spree in West London. “I used to grab stacks of musty old photography books from Portobello market,” he shares. “Primarily works from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, due to the unavoidable time lag of acquiring anything secondhand rather than a preference for a particular genre or period. I obtained a stunning photography compilation from Time Life Books, entitled The Art of Photography, featuring around 10 hardback volumes with elegant matte silver covers covering artists from Cartier Bresson to Diane Arbus to Tee Corrinne.”
The endeavor of sourcing images that resonated with the band’s sound, and making a statement that diverged from the rapid rise of the BritPop phenomenon, must have been a daunting task. In identifying an image that conveyed something distinct from the mainstream, was direct and comprehensible, Anderson needed to find something that communicated more intricate and ambiguous concepts. Imagery at that juncture had been probing questions of gender and sexuality, mirroring their lyrics.
(Image credit: Courtesy of Suede)
“It was in one of these volumes…
that I encountered Joanne Leonard and particularly her piece Sad Dreams on Cold Mornings. There was something splendidly ambiguous and enigmatic about it that I found instantly enthralling,” he reminisces. “I’m perpetually attracted to art that raises more inquiries than it seeks to resolve, and this artwork definitely fulfilled that. A narrative appears to exist, yet it is elusive and completely captivating – are we observing a post-coital moment, or one filled with sadness, despair, or fatigue? Or perhaps a combination of all, or none?”
Suede’s imagery during this period was infused with the motifs of the music they embody, rife with challenging reflection on fame, seclusion, sexuality, idolization, rebellion, and youthful exuberance. The group proceeded to produce numerous single covers including the We are The Pigs cover which depicts a squad of masked individuals dressed in silver and black, and Wild Ones that features a vivid portrayal of a hand gripping the neck of a horse. The band also commissioned a series of films by Mike Christie that were showcased during their live performances, existing somewhere in the realm between art film and music video, they unfold narratives that range from gender explorations to a group of small children violently smashing a car in desolate moorland.
While the music ventures into diverse extremes, the visuals enhance them, leaving a lasting impression on mainstream culture. In the band’s successor, Coming Up, rave culture and 90s lifestyle are dissected by Nick Knight and Peter Saville in a compilation of neon daydreams including a second iconic album cover. The visuals could hardly contrast more sharply, yet occasional references persist as the sorrowful solitary figure on a bed of Dog Man Star is exchanged for a starry-eyed ménage à trois.
We Are the Pigs album cover
(Image credit: Courtesy of Suede)
“The meaning of beds has perpetually intrigued me. I adore that they are sanctuaries of solace and contemplation and warmth and security but also sites of intensity and fervor and occasionally even of embarrassment and remorse,” Anderson reflected. “It was this meaning that I furthered on additional Suede sleeves from Coming Up in 1996 all the way to Autofiction in 2022, but it was the Leonard image that sparked that sequence of self-reference. There are elements in the image that indicate even more–the existence of the window serves as a hopeful gesture despite the overwhelming sense of gloom. It somehow hints at an escape and a realm of opportunity beyond.”
There exists a similarity between the approaches of both artists as their works uncover beauty in the mundane and strive to elevate it. Suede has continued to produce many more albums, solidifying their legacy in music history and Leonard’s creations reside in some of the world’s most significant collections.
“There are several coincidental overlaps between their concepts and mine. An article released this year following my photographs of interiors displayed at MoMA labeled my work as ‘Joanne Leonard celebrates the radical every day, which I cherished’,” Leonard clarifies. “I’ve never been part of a world that acknowledges how remarkable this album and its recognition have been. I’m only starting to comprehend it.”
The 30th anniversary edition of Dog Man Star is available at