‘I wanted to make Manson look beautiful. But people found this image haunting and grotesque’
In the late 90s, Marilyn Manson was the new rock star in Los Angeles. I’d already gone on the road with him and shot a few covers, including the Smells Like Children EP, and done the press shots for his album Antichrist Superstar. So I felt like I’d earned the album cover of Mechanical Animals.
I always found it funny that people find the image haunting and grotesque. I wanted to make Manson look beautiful, like Bowie from the cover of Diamond Dogs. To make his prosthetic boobs, we drove out to the San Fernando Valley, where a Japanese special effects artist named Screaming Mad George had his studio. They brought in three different girls to get their breasts cast. In the end, the sculptor decided he’d rather make the prosthetic breasts from his imagination.
