Edward Lee Thrasher Jr. (March 7, 1932 – August 5, 2006), known as Ed Thrasher, was an American art director and photographer. He was the recipient of a number of Grammy Award nominations for his work on album covers and won a Grammy for Best Album Package in 1974 for the Mason Proffit cover Come & Gone.[1] He worked with various recording artists and is known for his influence on album cover design.[2][3]
Thrasher had a great influence on the world of album cover design. Before the 1960s, album cover designs typically used only a picture of an artist or an inanimate object, not being reflective of the artist or the music. Thrasher helped to change this by combining different types of photography to capture the energy of the band and the way they performed their concerts. He utilized portraits and live scenes. This allowed for an album cover to better market an artist's image. Thrasher was also known for being very versatile and able to adapt the design to whatever artist he was working with.[4][6]