During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, a series of photographs featuring care home residents went viral. Taken on a smartphone the images recreate iconic album covers. Four years later they still resonate. Peter Dench finds out more
‘I had the idea in my mind for ages, years. It could only work because of the COVID situation because nobody was around. There were no entertainers and no visits by family members. This meant that I was never going to be disturbed.’ It could be the beginning of a confession to a crime but is in fact much more thrilling. I meet Robert Speker (pronounced Speaker) in a comfy pistachio coloured sunlit room on a Sunday morning at the Sydmar Lodge Care Home in Edgware, north London.
He’s sitting with a straight back in a low chair, neatly presented in a checked shirt and dark chinos, smart watch around the wrist. Care home staples are dotted around us; water jugs and beakers, a plastic orchid, jigsaw puzzles, hand sanitiser. Entering the 53 bed lodgings was uplifting, a Union flag of Great Britain hung in the entrance and friendly chatter filled the corridors.
Robert continues: ‘It was Friday the 10th of July 2020, my second daughter’s birthday [he has three]. I’m quite a perfectionist. It was time to let the families and friends see it. I put it on Twitter, I put it on Facebook, went home and thought nothing of it. People obviously liked the images. I knew people would, because this was their family member or friend. People did need something positive. Over that Friday night it just went crazy.’
Robert is Head of Wellbeing at Sydmar Lodge, ensuring the health and happiness of the residents, staff and relatives through meaningful and personalised engagement; playing the piano, organising entertainers, quizzes, activities, events, outside trips and utilising residents to recreate iconic album covers! It was his Care Home Album Covers (CHAC) initiative which went viral on social media four years ago, four months into the first lockdown. That original Friday night tweet has received over 37K retweets, 1.5K comments and over 12 million views. Sydmar Lodge was trending. Radio and TV outlets reached out from across the globe – UK (including BBC, ITV, Channel 5), Europe, North and South America (ABC, NBC), Canada, Australia and the Far East.
It’s understandable why. The reimagined album covers are charming and authentic, created at a time when positivity was needed and vigorously shared. For inspiration, Robert typed into Google, ‘top iconic album covers’. He already knew the residents well and which of them would be best suited for each album cover. They had to like the particular singer or have some resemblance.
Vera was the ideal resident to recreate the fifth photo in the CHAC series, Adele’s second studio album 21. Vera was passionate about music and had similar hair to Adele. Vera’s name and age, 93, were inserted as the title. Robert recognised Lily had strength of character and a vague resemblance to Madonna, so cast her on the cover of the eighth photo in series, the 1986 album, True Blue. Roma had a similar hairdo to that of David Bowie for the fourth recreation, the 1973 album Aladdin Sane. It was then just a case of applying the iconic lightning bolt across the obliging Roma’s face. Positive comments even arrived through Twitter from Bowie’s widow Iman and son Duncan Jones. A fitting tribute.
For the first two albums in the series, 94-year-old Sheila used her walking stick in a playful reference to Elvis Presley’s 1956 eponymous album. Sheila then used her walking stick to emulate The Clash’s Paul Simonon’s bass guitar. Robert says: ‘Recreating this album felt even more relevant, since my series features works of pastiche, the practice of making art by intentionally imitating the style of someone else’s work. I just told Sheila to smash down her walking stick thinking of how she felt due to the Covid lockdown.’
Shelia’s third album reconstruction was Human by Rag’n’Bone Man, of whom she was an avid fan. ‘I think I look like him. Hahahaha. I just like Rag’n’ Bone Man. Charming, charitable, a very nice person,’ she says in one TV interview. In 2018 Robert had helped fulfil her bucket-list wish to see Rag’n’Bone Man in concert, at London’s Blackheath Festival, where she got to meet him backstage and was given a signed album. For the cover Robert replicated the artist’s tattoo on Sheila’s arms.
Not all the album covers featured residents. It was important for Robert to highlight the carers working at Sydmar Lodge and acknowledge those across the care profession. He did this by recreating the sixth photo in the series, Queen’s 1974 album, Queen II. Four female carers are shown in deep shadow, wearing pale or dark blue uniforms. The carer at the front wears blue gloves, arms crossed and a badge saying Lisa. The angle of the lighting is modified to mimic the original album to create a more intense and emotive feel.
To shoot the series, Robert opted to use a smartphone rather than his Nikon and a more cost-effective Huawei to an Apple or Samsung. Robert now uses Xiaomi and Oppo phones. The lighting was natural. He did every aspect including the stunning makeup. Each image was edited on the phone or in some cases using Microsoft Paint when adding text and fonts. The odd background removed, a conversion to black & white, never overly polished. ‘I only realised that when it was blown up to be printed the same size as an album, there was very little distortion. I didn’t shoot a raw file. I hadn’t even thought about printing it out. It was only supposed to be sent to family and friends. I’d not thought about them being printed out as pieces of art,’ he says.
He had to think about this when the Science Museum got in touch with him about acquiring the original series of 12. ‘There were so many emails coming through. My sister was fielding Twitter for me and the press. My wife saw that email and said I had to respond. I wasn’t even sure what ‘acquiring’ meant. Once I got my head around that, I had a really good discussion with the Science Museum and they made it very easy for me, explaining every process, even the pricing.’ They’re printed as an edition of 25 on Fuji C-Type paper and sized 12x12in to replicate an album cover. Prints are priced £395 each and all profits will be shared with the Alzheimer’s Society and Sydmar Lodge residents.
The series of 12 became 16 when Robert was emboldened to continue after the lead singer of Ultravox, Midge Ure, requested via Twitter that Robert construct the Vienna album which was celebrating its 40th anniversary. Robert summoned Freda, Mildred, Muriel and the reliable Sheila. ‘There was really no editing in that. The challenge was getting all four residents to stand in the right positions at the right time while I took a photo. What was complicated was assembling the chairs at the time and putting sheets over them to mimic the image. That was hard as was positioning the residents to do it. By the time you get to the last one they’ve already moved or one of them would say, “Don’t tell me to do that!” On seeing the finished album cover recreation Midge Ure delivered his verdict: ‘Utterly, utterly brilliant, Robert.’
Copycat projects were a further endorsement of the success. Residents at a care home in Aylesbury recreated their favourite Taylor Swift covers ahead of her 2024 UK Eras Tour. It’s debatable how much these ‘Senior Swifties’ knew about the music. An outside film crew documented the process. A professional photographer took the photos. A green screen was deployed. There was a heavy whiff of PR which raises ethical questions whether to coerce potentially vulnerable people to participate. Robert hides any concerns. ‘It’s not something I can patent. If anybody wants to do it, it’s fine. If it’s other care homes, fair play to them.’
Perhaps as a nod of respect (or guilt), the Aylesbury care home didn’t recreate the Taylor Swift 2014 album (named after her year of birth) that Robert had used. With his usual tenacity, Robert had tried to source a replica of the jumper Swift wore for the album cover. Not wanting to get into an extortionate bidding war on an auction website, Robert decided instead to print out an image of the jumper in A3, cutting out the neckline and asking resident Renee to hold it up in position. Renee’s initials and year of birth R.C. 1922 correlating to Taylor Swift’s use of her own initials and date of birth T.S. 1989 were applied on the album cover.
Photography and music are recognised as having health and well-being benefits, especially for those living with dementia. They can help them communicate, stay connected and trigger favourable memories. Robert acknowledges an element in his CHAC. ‘It was very difficult to explain the concept to some of the residents. I’d show them the album cover and say you’re going to be that, that’s what we’re going to make but it’s going to be you instead of Michael Jackson or David Bowie. It was only after it was finished would they laugh and say, “Now I understand.”
Their reactions were heartening and uplifting. They do place their trust in me and it’s my job not to let them down and I hope I didn’t. A lot of them with dementia would forget they even did the photo shoot. I’ll still show them it every so often and they won’t remember it at all. That it was on TV, in the media, all over the world, no recollection of it, so it’s nice they can relive it again. The families and close friends really appreciated the whole project and the opportunity for their loved relative to be involved in such an exciting initiative. They treasure the images!’
Robert has been up since 5am sourcing birthday cake recipes. His daughter wants a movie-themed birthday party but told him at the last minute that her friends had all seen the film Wonka which was planned to be shown. Robert recommended BIG (1988) and Spiderwick Chronicles (2008) instead. I stand to shake his hand goodbye. Before I do, he pulls out his phone and shows a recreation of the iconic album cover STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON by controversial American hip-hop gangsta-rap group N.W.A. The title on his, reads STRAIGHT OUTTA EDGWARE. ‘I’ve a lot more ideas for album covers,’ he says with a broad smile.
For more information visit: www.carehomealbumcovers.com/contact
Further reading on album cover photography:
- Nirvana’s Nevermind album cover voted ‘most iconic of all time’
- Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles
- Sticky Fingers by the Rolling Stones
- Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd
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