According to the LP´s notes the photograph cover is of singer Michael Gira´s mother, Alice Schulte Gira from "That American Look", Look Magazine in 1949. The back LP cover is of his father by the way.
Most of my experience with the Swans is the early no wave, anti-aesthetic work but I still find the same sense of desperation and searching in this music that I hear Cop. Whether in the abyss or crawling towards the light, the struggle is still the same and it's painfully beautiful.