I’ve had the chance to be involved with several Burning Image releases over the years, either through photography, photo editing, or album artwork. It still feels surreal seeing things I created end up on CDs, streaming platforms, reviews, and all sorts of random places.
I was just a kid in her 20s when a lot of this started, completely amateur and learning as I went.
Most of the album concepts usually started with ideas from Moe, my father in law and the lead singer of Burning Image, and we’d build from there.
Note: The Burning Image logo featured on most of the releases below comes from the band’s album cover for The Final Conflict by Art Morales.
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Fantasma (2009)
My husband Jonathan appeared on the cover as the ghost figure.
He also photographed the band and the cemetery scenes featured throughout the CD booklet, while I handled the photo editing.
Below are a few examples of the original images compared to my edited versions. I created several different edits and variations for the band to choose from. In the final release, they ended up going with a different version instead of the colored rose/logo concept shown here.
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Oleander (2011)
My first official album cover.
I photographed this on Oleander Street in Bakersfield, with my husband holding the “Oleander” paper prop. I also handled all of the photo editing.
This cover was later reused for the 2017 release of Oleander Revisited. They incorporated my original “Oleander” photo into a new image they created. Other than the use of my photo, I wasn’t involved with the updated artwork.
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The Grand Guignol (2014)
My second album cover.
For this piece, I combined stage photos I had taken while seeing Dead Can Dance live with a few other elements to put together the cover artwork. I also created the border and extra textures from scratch while messing around in Photoshop.
The small demon illustrations, font, and dollar sign were provided by Moe, but I created the blood-dripping effect on the dollar sign myself.
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Songs of Reproach and Redemption (2018)
This release featured some photos my husband and I had taken, along with actual photos of the two of us. Other than contributing the images, we weren’t involved in anything else.
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The King Is Dead (2019)
My third album cover.
The photo was taken by me inside the Bradbury Building in Los Angeles, famously known as one of the filming locations for Blade Runner. The image features my legs and feet, which still makes me laugh a little.
The photograph itself is entirely mine, but I had nothing to do with the text overlay.
One of the funniest parts is that Moe was actually there when I took the photo and had no idea it would eventually become the album cover.
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One of the coolest moments for me was seeing my work featured in Rue Morgue, where the artwork I created for The Grand Guignol appeared in a review. Seeing my work pop up on CDs, All the music sites, magazines, and other unexpected places has honestly been such a surreal experience.
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Over the years, I’ve also created show flyers, edited promotional band photos, and put together various press and promo images that have been used in different places online and in print.
I’m incredibly grateful that my in laws invited me to contribute creatively to the band over the years. I’ve just always loved taking photos and playing around with editing, which makes it even more special to see these projects become part of Burning Image history. I was just a kid playing around and creating things, never really knowing what I was doing. But that’s part of life, those experiences and learning as you go. It meant a lot that people I loved believed in me, and that will forever make my heart happy.
Note (May 2026): When I get a chance, I need to dig up more photos and upload better quality.