Why do people I like always take this same picture? These are of course the covers of Elliott Smith’s LP, ‘From a Basement on the Hill’, and Sharon Van Etten’s single, ‘Leonard’, and you cannot deny a certain closeness in both pictures.
Iman told me the artists were probably recording in the building and go outside for a quick picture, so it makes sense they sat on the stairs. Yeah, probably….
I don’t know where this Elliott Smith’s picture was taken but I know it is French photographer Renaud Monfourny's work, and there are a few other ones in color, taken on these same stairs.
It is funny because when the Smith family decided to use the picture for the posthumous album's cover, Elliott’s sister called me because she knew I was speaking French and wanted me to translate when they’d call Mr. Monfourny. I was not home and she left a message, but unfortunately, it never happened since someone in Montfourny’s office was speaking English (or even himself, I am not sure).
Every time I look at this picture I think about this story, and many other pictures of musicians make me think about it, because who doesn’t sit on stairs for a photo op?