On 28. April 1977, Kiss did the four “Love Gun” photo sessions with Barry Levine in Los Angeles, California. The four sessions were the famed “Black session”, “Mylar session” (where the originals for the paintings for the Ace, Paul and Peter’s solo albums come from), “Cubes session” and the “Blue/brown session”. These were the only photo sessions with the brand new, shiny silver “Love Gun” costumes.
Barry Levine:
“We experimented a lot with everything. That’s how the series with the wildly multi coloured, shimmering mylar background happened. It was 1977 and we had to do a “Love Gun” promotional shoot. I set it up in my studio and I wanted to get a series with different colours in the background because we had been using a lot of blacks and greys up to that point. I got these coloured mylar sheets and reflected some plain white light from them, sometimes adding just a little bit of blue gel to the mix. I pulled the light a little out of focus because the patterns on the sheets were very odd, and I wanted to get really vibrant colours and images from the mylar. These shots appeared on magazines and newspapers all over the place. Some mylar shots, as well as other images I photographed, were included on the cover of Kiss’ World Tour 77-78 program. If you look really carefully, you can tell that those same shots were the photo models for the gatefold etchings inside “Double Platinum”, as well as the solo album covers, although we didn’t have either of those projects in mind when we decided to shoot that day.”
Kiss, photo from the Mylar session with photographer Barry Levine, 28. April 1977.
“The actual starry background was a last-minute addition. We needed something a little more dramatic than a plain backdrop, but nothing busy enough to take the focus away from everything that was going on with the band. After looking at – and rejecting – several backdrops that I had in the studio, I made the starry scene myself using grayish-brown paper, coating it with hair spray, then throwing reflective dust and glitter all over it. Then I placed a sheet of mylar onto the floor to meet with the backdrop, using gray spray paint to cover the line between them. The light reflecting from the glitter backdrop onto the mylar created a shimmering, reflective substance. Happily, it came out great.”
– “The Kiss Years” by Barry Levine.
Related Kiss posts:
Kiss does the legendary “Alive II” photo session
Gene Simmons, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley does solo photo sessions
Kiss does a photo session in Kyoto, Japan
Kiss enters Larrabee Studios, LA, to record a 4 track demo
Eric Carr invited as the new drummer in Kiss
The Kiss photo session “White Room Session” takes place
On 28. April 1977, Kiss did the four “Love Gun” photo sessions with Barry Levine in Los Angeles, California. The four sessions were the famed “Black session”, “Mylar session” (where the originals for the paintings for the Ace, Paul and Peter’s solo albums come from), “Cubes session” and the “Blue/brown session”. These were the only photo sessions with the brand new, shiny silver “Love Gun” costumes.
Barry Levine:
“We experimented a lot with everything. That’s how the series with the wildly multi coloured, shimmering mylar background happened. It was 1977 and we had to do a “Love Gun” promotional shoot. I set it up in my studio and I wanted to get a series with different colours in the background because we had been using a lot of blacks and greys up to that point. I got these coloured mylar sheets and reflected some plain white light from them, sometimes adding just a little bit of blue gel to the mix. I pulled the light a little out of focus because the patterns on the sheets were very odd, and I wanted to get really vibrant colours and images from the mylar. These shots appeared on magazines and newspapers all over the place. Some mylar shots, as well as other images I photographed, were included on the cover of Kiss’ World Tour 77-78 program. If you look really carefully, you can tell that those same shots were the photo models for the gatefold etchings inside “Double Platinum”, as well as the solo album covers, although we didn’t have either of those projects in mind when we decided to shoot that day.”
Kiss, photo from the Mylar session with photographer Barry Levine, 28. April 1977.
“The actual starry background was a last-minute addition. We needed something a little more dramatic than a plain backdrop, but nothing busy enough to take the focus away from everything that was going on with the band. After looking at – and rejecting – several backdrops that I had in the studio, I made the starry scene myself using grayish-brown paper, coating it with hair spray, then throwing reflective dust and glitter all over it. Then I placed a sheet of mylar onto the floor to meet with the backdrop, using gray spray paint to cover the line between them. The light reflecting from the glitter backdrop onto the mylar created a shimmering, reflective substance. Happily, it came out great.”
– “The Kiss Years” by Barry Levine.
Related Kiss posts:
Kiss does the legendary “Alive II” photo session
Gene Simmons, Peter Criss and Ace Frehley does solo photo sessions
Kiss does a photo session in Kyoto, Japan
Kiss enters Larrabee Studios, LA, to record a 4 track demo
Eric Carr invited as the new drummer in Kiss
The Kiss photo session “White Room Session” takes place