20 Years of 'Frank' by Amy Winehouse
It wasn’t supposed to be a projection of a girl in the music industry, or an artist releasing her first album. It was just supposed to be Amy. – Charles Moriarty
October 20th marks two decades since the release of Frank, the debut album by Amy Winehouse, one of the brightest stars in British music since the Millennium. Frank – its title both an homage to Sinatra and a description of the album’s lyrical tone – won Winehouse critical praise and an Ivor Novello Award. Its cover was captured by Iconic Images photographer Charles Moriarty, on an autumn night in East London in 2003.
A friend of hers – Tyler James – introduced us.
Tyler said: “Can you take some photos of my friend?” I was like, “fine, whatever.” My experience then was really just photographing my friends out partying. I would never at that point have considered myself a “photographer".
So, we sat in my kitchen and Amy brought over some of her music for me to listen to – I wanted to get an idea of who I was trying to photograph. She pulled out her make-up box and did up her face.
We headed out – I remember grabbing a bottle of wine from the off-licence – and went down to Princelet Street. I think within about 20 minutes, we’d done the cover for Frank. Then we wandered along Brick Lane, across Grimsby Street and then up to Old Street. That was the day I met Amy.
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