The January 2010 Harper’s Magazine (print) features a few photographs from Thomas Allen’s “Epilogue,” the last in his long series of photographs of transformed pulp fiction book covers.
This was the first I’d seen of Allen’s incredible work, even though he’s been carving up covers for the camera for at least five years. Allen’s work is done without digital retouching, just the rudimentary rigging required to set up the shot—knives, pins, tape—and the long shadows and dark backgrounds to dial up the melodrama. Paintalicious has a great collection of his work. You can see more images on his blog and in his book, Uncovered.
