London-based photographer Dan Tobin Smith is the man behind the now-famous BP3 cover.  The video above shows the painstaking work of both placing and painting the instruments for the shot, which took nearly 3 days.  Channeling Hova’s empire state of mind, Tobin shot it on 8″x10″ film so that the quality would hold up equally well on a building-sized billboard as it would a CD cover.  Tobin Smith was chosen because of a letter “E” that he made as part of a series of typography portraits, some of which can be seen on his personal site.  There is also a full interview with Dan discussing the cover over at It’s Nice That.