‘It's interesting because I shot this backstage in Barcelona, when they were clearing up the stage…And these are the dummies and people don't realise sometimes they're dummies, it is so difficult to see. In a way these are the photographs that immediately translate their sound … but in the end it is a dummy. I just shot one of each of the heads, not a whole series with different angles.
I printed one of these at some point for my first book, and it was still a lot of years later before I realised that these made a nice series.
As a result, in my first book Famouz , there’s only that one portrait, but later I started to use all four because it was just an amazing series. I hadn’t realised the potential, but it is one of my favourite bodies of work from that period. So yeah, one of each … I used to take many more risks when I was young. I cover myself more when I photograph now, but in those days, I would just take a few pictures because I was careful with the amount of film because, you know, that’s what you do when you have no money. I came from no money, and you just had to be careful with how much you shoot.
That's why I used that Tri-X film - so that I didn’t have to change the film when I did a few live shots one night and then daytime shots the next day. When I look at my old film, sometimes it's five sessions or more on one film, and now it’s like five films for one session.
This is the problem with digital … and I've seen this with my friend, Peter Lindberg. He shot so much, and it took him days and nights to actually make selections, because it's all like, ‘why is this one better than the other’. I shoot a lot of stuff digital now too, but you have to be so careful that you don’t shoot too much, because you make it a nightmare for the editing process.
It's really interesting to me how different digital shooting is. You know, especially because some will have a finger on the shutter the whole time. It's like shooting a movie... and I don't do that, but I still shoot too much when I shoot digital.
For example – when I shot Ai Wei Wei … and I went into his compound in Beijing where he was under house arrest, and I thought I would have plenty of time to talk and have a cup of tea, but then he got a call that he had to report to the police station. So, suddenly I had to make my pictures in just 25min, then go back to my hotel and leave the next day … going through the airport x-rays with my films, going to London where I give the films to a freelance developer outside Liverpool St Station (because all the printers I used are now closed), and the lady had to take it home an hour outside London where she develops, before bringing the negs and contacts back up to London the next day – so all these risks, where things could possibly go wrong. You take it for granted now the issue of film in the old days. You used to think, ‘I don’t know what I’ve got, I have no clue, I might have lost it’. Anyway, it worked out well, but you know … you do take risks.
I remember in 2007, I had just finished filming my first movie Control, mostly with my money – I had nothing left, so I was eager to do some stills work. I was asked by HBO to do the poster for ‘The Sopranos’ for the final series, as they loved the photo I did with Isabella Rossellini and the Statue of Liberty, shot from Manhattan. So, they wanted the same but with James Gandolfini. The writer called me and said, ‘You know this series is about America turning its back on “The Sopranos”’. His only stipulation was that it had to be shot from the New Jersey side, because that's where The Sopranos were based, and because it is much closer to the Statue of Liberty. So anyway, I went there, it was a big deal. All these people flown in from LA to do the shoot, oh my goodness … I felt very uncomfortable, because I'm used to the camera and just me and my subject. So, they are all standing behind me and I say ‘So, why don’t you guys go and look at the monitor’, and they say ‘Oh yeah, great, great. Where is it? looking around’ and I say ‘There is no monitor’ but I just wanted them to leave me and James, but they all expected there to be a monitor. I shot on film of course.
It’s true, I have worked across Fashion, Art, and Music, and there are a lot of things that maybe the public aren’t aware of … I’ve never really pushed the PR side, so it’s only friends of mine that often know the extent of work that I have done.
I was always very defensive about a lot of things… about the people I shot, the story behind the image… I want people to discover it themselves, and not to give away all the stories about the photographs. People want to know too much. The beauty with photography is that you, as a viewer, project your own thoughts onto a picture, make your own story, and you can’t If you know the exact story.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘It's interesting because I shot this backstage in Barcelona, when they were clearing up the stage…And these are the dummies and people don't realise sometimes they're dummies, it is so difficult to see. In a way these are the photographs that immediately translate their sound … but in the end it is a dummy. I just shot one of each of the heads, not a whole series with different angles.
I printed one of these at some point for my first book, and it was still a lot of years later before I realised that these made a nice series.
As a result, in my first book Famouz , there’s only that one portrait, but later I started to use all four because it was just an amazing series. I hadn’t realised the potential, but it is one of my favourite bodies of work from that period. So yeah, one of each … I used to take many more risks when I was young. I cover myself more when I photograph now, but in those days, I would just take a few pictures because I was careful with the amount of film because, you know, that’s what you do when you have no money. I came from no money, and you just had to be careful with how much you shoot.
That's why I used that Tri-X film - so that I didn’t have to change the film when I did a few live shots one night and then daytime shots the next day. When I look at my old film, sometimes it's five sessions or more on one film, and now it’s like five films for one session.
This is the problem with digital … and I've seen this with my friend, Peter Lindberg. He shot so much, and it took him days and nights to actually make selections, because it's all like, ‘why is this one better than the other’. I shoot a lot of stuff digital now too, but you have to be so careful that you don’t shoot too much, because you make it a nightmare for the editing process.
It's really interesting to me how different digital shooting is. You know, especially because some will have a finger on the shutter the whole time. It's like shooting a movie... and I don't do that, but I still shoot too much when I shoot digital.
For example – when I shot Ai Wei Wei … and I went into his compound in Beijing where he was under house arrest, and I thought I would have plenty of time to talk and have a cup of tea, but then he got a call that he had to report to the police station. So, suddenly I had to make my pictures in just 25min, then go back to my hotel and leave the next day … going through the airport x-rays with my films, going to London where I give the films to a freelance developer outside Liverpool St Station (because all the printers I used are now closed), and the lady had to take it home an hour outside London where she develops, before bringing the negs and contacts back up to London the next day – so all these risks, where things could possibly go wrong. You take it for granted now the issue of film in the old days. You used to think, ‘I don’t know what I’ve got, I have no clue, I might have lost it’. Anyway, it worked out well, but you know … you do take risks.
I remember in 2007, I had just finished filming my first movie Control, mostly with my money – I had nothing left, so I was eager to do some stills work. I was asked by HBO to do the poster for ‘The Sopranos’ for the final series, as they loved the photo I did with Isabella Rossellini and the Statue of Liberty, shot from Manhattan. So, they wanted the same but with James Gandolfini. The writer called me and said, ‘You know this series is about America turning its back on “The Sopranos”’. His only stipulation was that it had to be shot from the New Jersey side, because that's where The Sopranos were based, and because it is much closer to the Statue of Liberty. So anyway, I went there, it was a big deal. All these people flown in from LA to do the shoot, oh my goodness … I felt very uncomfortable, because I'm used to the camera and just me and my subject. So, they are all standing behind me and I say ‘So, why don’t you guys go and look at the monitor’, and they say ‘Oh yeah, great, great. Where is it? looking around’ and I say ‘There is no monitor’ but I just wanted them to leave me and James, but they all expected there to be a monitor. I shot on film of course.
It’s true, I have worked across Fashion, Art, and Music, and there are a lot of things that maybe the public aren’t aware of … I’ve never really pushed the PR side, so it’s only friends of mine that often know the extent of work that I have done.
I was always very defensive about a lot of things… about the people I shot, the story behind the image… I want people to discover it themselves, and not to give away all the stories about the photographs. People want to know too much. The beauty with photography is that you, as a viewer, project your own thoughts onto a picture, make your own story, and you can’t If you know the exact story.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘At the time this was shot, David was becoming more serious about some things in life… because he had to take care of his son as a father. It’s something that changed the way he lived. He was playing ‘The Elephant Man’ in Chicago in a theatre play. I went there without having any appointment with him or any agreement to photograph, but somehow, I managed to get backstage, and asked his PA if I could take a photograph. Year’s prior, I had left my portfolio at a hotel he stayed at in Amsterdam. I got it back the next day with a simple “Thank you, very nice” from his assistant and I took it as a polite, ‘Go away’ note, but this time, at the theatre I mentioned this to them, and they looked in a notebook where they had my name written with ‘The best photographer in Holland’ next to it. So, that was it, I could take a photo of David.
I think from the production point of view, he was not allowed to do this, but I did it in a very short time, about five to 10 minutes… Ultimately, it would become one of my most well-known photographs. I worked with David a few times since then and he was a delight to work with. He was very good looking, a gentleman, and funny.
There is something ‘Christ-like’ about this image of course. That’s not the set out, but it's a lovely undercurrent.
The next day I took some more pictures of him, this time in a bar. He was extraordinarily kind to me. He even gave me three songs for my first movie, Control.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘It's interesting because I shot this backstage in Barcelona, when they were clearing up the stage…And these are the dummies and people don't realise sometimes they're dummies, it is so difficult to see. In a way these are the photographs that immediately translate their sound … but in the end it is a dummy. I just shot one of each of the heads, not a whole series with different angles.
I printed one of these at some point for my first book, and it was still a lot of years later before I realised that these made a nice series.
As a result, in my first book Famouz , there’s only that one portrait, but later I started to use all four because it was just an amazing series. I hadn’t realised the potential, but it is one of my favourite bodies of work from that period. So yeah, one of each … I used to take many more risks when I was young. I cover myself more when I photograph now, but in those days, I would just take a few pictures because I was careful with the amount of film because, you know, that’s what you do when you have no money. I came from no money, and you just had to be careful with how much you shoot.
That's why I used that Tri-X film - so that I didn’t have to change the film when I did a few live shots one night and then daytime shots the next day. When I look at my old film, sometimes it's five sessions or more on one film, and now it’s like five films for one session.
This is the problem with digital … and I've seen this with my friend, Peter Lindberg. He shot so much, and it took him days and nights to actually make selections, because it's all like, ‘why is this one better than the other’. I shoot a lot of stuff digital now too, but you have to be so careful that you don’t shoot too much, because you make it a nightmare for the editing process.
It's really interesting to me how different digital shooting is. You know, especially because some will have a finger on the shutter the whole time. It's like shooting a movie... and I don't do that, but I still shoot too much when I shoot digital.
For example – when I shot Ai Wei Wei … and I went into his compound in Beijing where he was under house arrest, and I thought I would have plenty of time to talk and have a cup of tea, but then he got a call that he had to report to the police station. So, suddenly I had to make my pictures in just 25min, then go back to my hotel and leave the next day … going through the airport x-rays with my films, going to London where I give the films to a freelance developer outside Liverpool St Station (because all the printers I used are now closed), and the lady had to take it home an hour outside London where she develops, before bringing the negs and contacts back up to London the next day – so all these risks, where things could possibly go wrong. You take it for granted now the issue of film in the old days. You used to think, ‘I don’t know what I’ve got, I have no clue, I might have lost it’. Anyway, it worked out well, but you know … you do take risks.
I remember in 2007, I had just finished filming my first movie Control, mostly with my money – I had nothing left, so I was eager to do some stills work. I was asked by HBO to do the poster for ‘The Sopranos’ for the final series, as they loved the photo I did with Isabella Rossellini and the Statue of Liberty, shot from Manhattan. So, they wanted the same but with James Gandolfini. The writer called me and said, ‘You know this series is about America turning its back on “The Sopranos”’. His only stipulation was that it had to be shot from the New Jersey side, because that's where The Sopranos were based, and because it is much closer to the Statue of Liberty. So anyway, I went there, it was a big deal. All these people flown in from LA to do the shoot, oh my goodness … I felt very uncomfortable, because I'm used to the camera and just me and my subject. So, they are all standing behind me and I say ‘So, why don’t you guys go and look at the monitor’, and they say ‘Oh yeah, great, great. Where is it? looking around’ and I say ‘There is no monitor’ but I just wanted them to leave me and James, but they all expected there to be a monitor. I shot on film of course.
It’s true, I have worked across Fashion, Art, and Music, and there are a lot of things that maybe the public aren’t aware of … I’ve never really pushed the PR side, so it’s only friends of mine that often know the extent of work that I have done.
I was always very defensive about a lot of things… about the people I shot, the story behind the image… I want people to discover it themselves, and not to give away all the stories about the photographs. People want to know too much. The beauty with photography is that you, as a viewer, project your own thoughts onto a picture, make your own story, and you can’t If you know the exact story.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘It's interesting because I shot this backstage in Barcelona, when they were clearing up the stage…And these are the dummies and people don't realise sometimes they're dummies, it is so difficult to see. In a way these are the photographs that immediately translate their sound … but in the end it is a dummy. I just shot one of each of the heads, not a whole series with different angles.
I printed one of these at some point for my first book, and it was still a lot of years later before I realised that these made a nice series.
As a result, in my first book Famouz , there’s only that one portrait, but later I started to use all four because it was just an amazing series. I hadn’t realised the potential, but it is one of my favourite bodies of work from that period. So yeah, one of each … I used to take many more risks when I was young. I cover myself more when I photograph now, but in those days, I would just take a few pictures because I was careful with the amount of film because, you know, that’s what you do when you have no money. I came from no money, and you just had to be careful with how much you shoot.
That's why I used that Tri-X film - so that I didn’t have to change the film when I did a few live shots one night and then daytime shots the next day. When I look at my old film, sometimes it's five sessions or more on one film, and now it’s like five films for one session.
This is the problem with digital … and I've seen this with my friend, Peter Lindberg. He shot so much, and it took him days and nights to actually make selections, because it's all like, ‘why is this one better than the other’. I shoot a lot of stuff digital now too, but you have to be so careful that you don’t shoot too much, because you make it a nightmare for the editing process.
It's really interesting to me how different digital shooting is. You know, especially because some will have a finger on the shutter the whole time. It's like shooting a movie... and I don't do that, but I still shoot too much when I shoot digital.
For example – when I shot Ai Wei Wei … and I went into his compound in Beijing where he was under house arrest, and I thought I would have plenty of time to talk and have a cup of tea, but then he got a call that he had to report to the police station. So, suddenly I had to make my pictures in just 25min, then go back to my hotel and leave the next day … going through the airport x-rays with my films, going to London where I give the films to a freelance developer outside Liverpool St Station (because all the printers I used are now closed), and the lady had to take it home an hour outside London where she develops, before bringing the negs and contacts back up to London the next day – so all these risks, where things could possibly go wrong. You take it for granted now the issue of film in the old days. You used to think, ‘I don’t know what I’ve got, I have no clue, I might have lost it’. Anyway, it worked out well, but you know … you do take risks.
I remember in 2007, I had just finished filming my first movie Control, mostly with my money – I had nothing left, so I was eager to do some stills work. I was asked by HBO to do the poster for ‘The Sopranos’ for the final series, as they loved the photo I did with Isabella Rossellini and the Statue of Liberty, shot from Manhattan. So, they wanted the same but with James Gandolfini. The writer called me and said, ‘You know this series is about America turning its back on “The Sopranos”’. His only stipulation was that it had to be shot from the New Jersey side, because that's where The Sopranos were based, and because it is much closer to the Statue of Liberty. So anyway, I went there, it was a big deal. All these people flown in from LA to do the shoot, oh my goodness … I felt very uncomfortable, because I'm used to the camera and just me and my subject. So, they are all standing behind me and I say ‘So, why don’t you guys go and look at the monitor’, and they say ‘Oh yeah, great, great. Where is it? looking around’ and I say ‘There is no monitor’ but I just wanted them to leave me and James, but they all expected there to be a monitor. I shot on film of course.
It’s true, I have worked across Fashion, Art, and Music, and there are a lot of things that maybe the public aren’t aware of … I’ve never really pushed the PR side, so it’s only friends of mine that often know the extent of work that I have done.
I was always very defensive about a lot of things… about the people I shot, the story behind the image… I want people to discover it themselves, and not to give away all the stories about the photographs. People want to know too much. The beauty with photography is that you, as a viewer, project your own thoughts onto a picture, make your own story, and you can’t If you know the exact story.’ - Anton Corbijn
Okay, so this photograph is probably going to be on my gravestone, it’s that well known… Miles Davis shot in ‘85 in Montreal. It was an assignment for the New Musical Express, and he did an interview with the journalist one day, and I sat in. The next day, I had an appointment to take photos in the same room, and it was just Miles and me. He was so kind and friendly, although time was very limited. This was shot with natural light, and if you look in the eyeballs… they’re extraordinarily large, you can actually see my head in there, framed against the window. This photograph has been copied many times and in fact, Miles liked it so much that he wanted to use it for an album cover called ‘Tutu’ but Warner Brothers in their wisdom said no, ‘We want a photograph taken by a famous photographer’ which at the time I wasn't, so they asked Irving Penn to do it…. Who didn’t copy me, but his images were very close to this kind of image I shot. Annie Leibovitz copied it for a Milk advert with Miles … so it became a standard … and that's great, because it means your work has been recognised in that way. Yeah, so that's the story of Miles.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘Jeff Koons, much like Damien… you always think of painters promoting their work, not themselves … but with Damien and Jeff they also promote themselves. They are a bit more playful in that sense…. I shot this picture of Jeff outside his studio in New York, he held up this one prop in front of his face. It's actually quite a heavy piece of metal … but it made for a good fun photo.
Jeff tries to be the most normal person in the world but he’s anything but. I wanted to capture that in the shot.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘This wasn’t shot for a magazine, just for Christy and me. We were supposed to do a picture of her and Naomi Campbell in Dublin, for some magazine in France, and there was such bad weather at that time that it actually didn't happen… so I said to Christy, ‘Why don't we just do a few pictures ourselves?’ even though it was raining heavily, she agreed.
We were at somebody’s beautiful estate, and we shot some pictures in the garden… we did complete nudes, and it was a one off. It’s one of my least publicised works, but she gave me permission to use it in my book.
It’s very pure as she’s such a wonderful person.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘Well, you know my producer and me used to have a production company in London called State, and somebody who works with us was producing a video in New Mexico for Guns ‘n Roses, and he said, as I was in LA anyway, ‘Why don’t you come over to see how big videos are made?’. I was always doing low budget stuff at the time, so I went. It was one of those multi-million dollar projects … helicopters… crazy stuff … it was for their pretty great song called “November Rain”. I love that you can see it is Slash, even though the face is invisible …And I broke my ‘no music instruments’ rule haha.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘To some apparently a controversial figure at present but not to me … I think Johnny Depp is the sweetest guy you can meet. A really nice person.
The first time I met Johnny, he said ‘I've been to your home’, because he had visited Kate Moss, who lived upstairs from me in London, and he was going out with Kate at the time.
I have photographed him a few times, and he's been so fantastic every single time, so open to being photographed. This photo was for a film magazine in Paris called Studio. I was on a train to Paris and as I was walking down the aisle to get a cup of tea, someone said, ‘Hey Anton!’ and it was Johnny. He was travelling to Paris with an Editor from Studio Magazine… and they said “Well, if you’re there … could you do a picture for the article?” and so that is what I did.
I guess there is a shyness about him… he's not like “Look at me.”
He's friendly, funny, and unassuming, and he always looks cool. It is a gift to photographers… It’s hard to take a bad picture of someone like that.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘This was shot for Rolling Stone magazine, in New York’s Central Park. Iggy’s most famous picture was the naked picture from the 70’s … but in fact, he was reluctant to do anything naked. He didn’t want it to become this thing which I understand.
So, we started this photo with clothes on, but then I wasn’t happy with it, so he agreed to get naked but keep his boots on … and of course it is from far away, not an ‘In your face kinda thing.’
Iggy has a song called “I want to be your dog” so that was in the back of my mind the whole time for the shoot. This idea of him crawling towards the creek …’ - Anton Corbijn
‘This is from my own video for Johnny Cash, and I asked Kate to be in it. It was for a song called “Delia’s gone”, an original song that he performed; he didn't write it. It was for Rick Rubin's label… Rick was producing all these American recording albums with Johnny Cash in his later life.
So, Johnny stipulated that it had to be shot within “Five to ten minutes” of his home. He didn’t want to be far away from June.
June came to the shoot three times that day, every time dressed differently. It was fantastic.
So, I found an area nearby where we could shoot. I knew I wanted him to carry Kate in the video.
When we had our lunch break, he said, I'd like you to come to my house to have lunch, and although you generally do not leave your set as a director, I couldn't say no to his request, so I went home with him… he had a Jamaican cook who made chicken…I thought ‘I can’t tell Johnny Cash in his own home that I’m a vegetarian, and so I took the smallest helping!
I liked all the pictures I took of Johnny over the years, but this one of him carrying Kate reminds me of ‘Beauty and the Beast’…. He has the golden heart of the beast … if you look at him you can see the empathy there.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘This was the first time I ever photographed Naomi. The shoot was done in a hotel suite, and we got some really nice pictures out of it. It wasn’t shot on assignment, but we found a publication for it.
The paper used is the ‘Oriental Seagull paper’ – a Japanese paper. I printed my photographs with a developer that's called Lith developer that was not really intended for use with the paper that I printed on, so as a default it gave black and white and browns in the same picture. So, it was not a tonal thing that I applied later, but part of the development process.
The problem is that nobody is investing in the black and white elements of photography anymore, but the Japanese did, and they improved the paper. Unfortunately, the improvement of the paper also meant that it doesn’t work like it used to anymore. Because of the changes made to the paper, there are a lot of editions of the Star Trak series that could not be completed’ - Anton Corbijn
‘I was asked by REM to shoot for the ‘Automatic for the People’ album. They were the recording in Miami, so I stayed for a while, and this is one of the shots I did on the beach. I was with Michael in the water… and there’s something in it that suggests like he was drowning. I guess the non-flat horizon is to blame for that.
You're walking into the water. No platform to stand on and you're in there with him, and it's pretty deep. Yeah, but this picture is one of my favourites … I did many, many photographs with him. He is so photogenic, and open to experimentation.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘Funnily enough, I also shot this with the torchlight painting technique … you can see these stripes in the background. Only four prints were ever made, and I can never print any more due to the paper improvements as explained before.
I made this video called ‘Enjoy the Silence’ for Depeche Mode - it's a beautiful song and a beautiful video if I may say so.
My idea for the video shoot was inspired by a story I thought of about a king who had everything but all he needed was solitude, so he walked around the world with a deckchair to put up somewhere that gave him that pleasure … It was a very hard concept to get the band to approve. First, they said ‘We can’t see that happening, so please come back with another idea.’ The thing is once you have an idea in your mind to particular sounds, it’s difficult to let go of.
So, I came back a week later and said, ‘I can't think of anything else’. They reluctantly approved the shoot and it became such a popular video, especially in America… I was called ‘the David Lynch of music videos.’ It was at that time I did this picture of Dave dressed as the King – shot in my little studio at the time in South Kensington. Everyone was happy in the end.
That was a great thing, that they didn't go to another video director. They trusted me. I started working with Depeche Mode in the early 80’s … they were so young, and after the first shoot we did, they wanted to work with me … Initially I said no but after 1986 I started to work with them.
It's a long time, 35 years… and it is over 40 years since we met and I took their first pictures.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘Lucian Freud. A character… Lucian was definitely a character. My great love for painters started in the late 80’s … part of my love for photographing musicians, was to also see into their world, and the secrets of how they make their music… but now I've seen everything: private planes, recording studios and performances - there is no mystery left. For me, it was also very predictable to see musicians with an instrument in their studios. You hardly ever see this in any of my pictures – I am avoiding it. On top of that I wanted people to see the person, not just a musician, in my photo.
Whereas painters, I am really curious to see their workspace and to see how they work. Their whole world is more mysterious to me to start with. So, I started I think in the fairly late 80’s with Imi Knoebel, a German painter who I got to know and love.
Then I worked with Captain Beefheart, he was a musician turned painter, his real name was Don Van Vliet, and he was represented by Michael Werner Gallery in Cologne. He became a friend of mine, and I made my first short movie with him, “Some YoYo Stuff” in 1993… and that was just great. Also, because it's the last bit of film on him. Then I also did some work together with Marlene Dumas in the late 90’s.
So, these were the first painters I photographed, and then I started to do more and more of them. After the BLUE SERIES, I did a self-portrait series, which was conceptual series called ‘a. somebody’. After that, I didn't know anymore in which direction to go. So, I started going back to how I always photographed … how I started to photograph, but now with a different type of camera, and this time photographing painters.
So, I tried to get Lucian in front of a camera for many years. It was only because on one occasion, his assistant David Dawson, who always took pictures during Lucian’s sessions, was to be painted by Lucian, so clearly he couldn’t take pictures of his own session. He then asked me to shoot the session, with the possibility that I could also do a solo shot of Lucian if time and mood allowed… So that's how we did it… and I did two shoots in the end, as Lucian took years to finish a painting. I love the force he demonstrates in this photograph, and the layers of paint behind him.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘The 2nd time I photographed Naomi, and I believe we shot this in London for a German magazine. It was setup by my then agent… Naomi has always been great to me. I don't know why because I'm not sure how good I was then.
I did a series of her in a hotel room and on the balcony … and I always like this one because it's naked but at the same time it’s not … its playful, but it's also a little bit voyeuristic … we observe something …!’ - Anton Corbijn
So, this is the cover for an album called “The Boatman’s Call.”
I have photographed Nick since the early 80’s and he’s one of my favourite models, and a friend. I absolutely love working with Nick … he insisted on us doing this shoot in the studio … and we did, and I really didn't like what we were doing. So, I suggested stepping outside for a moment, and this is what came out of that.
When I gave him one print as an example of our shoot, he immediately said ‘That’s it. That’s the album cover’. He never looked at anything else.
It was for a very personal, and beautiful album, about his breakup with PJ Harvey.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘She has an old fashioned Roman face I think … statuesque. This shot was used for a magazine in Germany … with this picture I had no lights, no setup. It’s simply just a room in a nice apartment. Just the doors open in the shot … it just works with the lines. It was shot handheld. I don’t use a tripod often and as such, it’s always a little off - not so sharp. I think in a way you respond to that as a viewer without realising … because it's really true to life.
Stripped back - just Anton and his Camera. I hope this is how people will perceive the shoot. I remember I went to photograph Al Gore in Nashville, and I had found the location in a forest. While I waited there, I saw this entourage of five cars coming toward me... all his security and staff… to find just me and my assistant standing in the middle of nowhere. I think they were at first almost a little annoyed … they seemed to feel I hadn’t placed enough importance on who we were shooting.
In the end though, he sent a lot of the staff home … he also invited me back to his home after we finished… so I think he looked at it as a pleasant experience.
Yeah, that's what I hope for. That's also why with some people, I've worked with for decades … because you are part of the family, you don’t have reintroduce yourself, you're accepted, they feel at ease, and you get moments that you normally wouldn’t get … that's what I learned from some of the old photographers, they would hang around people… get to know them … and then they were able to shoot intimate moments.
In the 60’s, some of the music photographers whose work I admired – that’s what they would do. Access was so much easier then of course … people needed less protection. People become more and more protected now, and everything has to be approved … and there's layers and layers.
In the 90’s I bought this book by Michael Cooper for Bono. Michael was an English photographer who did amongst other work the Sgt Pepper album photograph … He was a friend of John Lennon as well as of Keith and Mick, and he photographed the whole scene … he sadly committed suicide early 70’s, because he was disappointed that the era of love of the 60’s had gone … but I liked his work a lot as it was documentary style, and it gave you a great impression of what the times were like.
I said to Bono, ‘that the really important thing is to keep this attitude also in our work, because you want to look back 10 years from now and know where you were. You don't want everything to be set up, as you will have no idea what really happened’… and I think he liked that … So, I'm still allowed to hang out.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘Well, we just had an idea to do something with the ocean. I'm not sure if it came from Chris, because you know he loves surfing. So, we went into the surf in Santa Monica.
We set up to do some shots in the ocean and it was actually as they were walking away from me that I took this shot.
I took more shots in the water before I was pushed over by the waves … I remember one camera I brought that day got swept out of my hands and although retrieved, the seawater damaged it too much so it was lost.
As a group they are so polite …Yeah, I mean Chris is not quiet or shy… he’s the motor. Both Guy and Chris lived really close to me at that time in Belsize Park… so Chris would sometimes drop films he thought I should see, through my letterbox.
Yeah, these are of course wonderful people, talented and all very nice.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘At this time, Kate and I lived in the same house in London.
The house was split into two apartments with two front doors. Quite beautifully done. She had 40% of the house, the top part, and the rest was mine … but she was never there. In fact, her water pipes froze one time because of disuse, and we had water damage.
I tried to do pictures with models, but because I have no clue about clothes, I’m not a fashion person, I was never sure how to shoot them. My thought was to remove clothes from the picture. That’s why I also shot Christy Turlington naked… this way I could relate to them as people.
Once I got to know them, I was able to shoot them anyway, but before I knew them, I was like, ‘I can't shoot models because what can I add to their beauty? I just felt I could only deal with the beauty inside and try to capture that.
The first time I met Kate was for a German Levi’s campaign... I didn’t know her then, but I’d seen great pictures of her in The FACE. So, a year or so later I just asked her if I could shoot her for me and she agreed.
We met in New York, and I rented a space for the shoot there … and this was the only good picture out of that shoot.
Anyway, so that is my early picture of Kate. As you can see, she is very young here, more innocent looking. That's part of the beauty of it.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘This is Patti Smith with a camera … Patti is a very poetic kind of person, both in her lyrics and how she looks at life.
We did this during a shoot in Paris for the New York Times Magazine, and it was the hottest day of the year so I said ‘Let's shoot at night with the streetlights’ … I guess I was inspired by Helmet Newton’s famous pictures at night … we did some shots, and one with her camera … it was almost a throwaway shot, but it would eventually become the Magazine’s cover.
This is actually the only picture hanging in my studio… when you come through the front door this is the big image you’re greeted by. People love it.
I don’t hang my own photographs at home. Whatever the pictures are … I live in my work, so I don’t bring my work to my home.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘I used a big light here, which is rare for me. It was a very foggy day in the south of France … it looks dramatic … and I think they all look really good. Yeah, remarkable because among other things, I don’t usually make people look good … I make them look interesting … but I made them look 5 years younger here compared to my normal photographs.
I have photographed U2 so often over the last forty years. It was February ‘82 when we started.
It’s uncanny that you work with these two bands, U2 and Depeche Mode, that have this longevity…. There’s obviously something that appealed to me in these people that I felt was more than surface, and maybe they felt that about me too... I've also had that with Nick Cave or Tom Waits … all very long, incredible careers.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘Shooting the Stones was interesting because it was prior to the release of ‘Voodoo Lounge’ and they were rehearsing for the tour outside Toronto on a farm. I'd loved The Stones, and their pictures in the 60’s and 70’s…but I’d totally lost interest in their photography in the 80’s and 90’s… it was always in studios … always nicely lit.
So, when I was asked, I said, ‘Yeah, I'm happy to do it, but I'd like to use masks’ to give an echo of their edgy past and fitting into the ‘Voodoo Lounge’ mode.
I got a call back from their PR people, and they didn’t want to know. So, I refused the shoot and wouldn’t want to go all the way to Canada to do a polite photograph. Anyone can do that.
So, this must have come back to Mick Jagger, because then he called me himself, at my home as one did back then, and asked me to explain. So we spoke, and he agreed… and when we did these pictures for the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine it was such a popular cover. It did so much good for them at that point in their career… so then I was asked to shoot them again a few times.
I love this picture. One of my favourite ever photographs of a band is a shot of The Band, that was done by Elliot Landy. It's done in the in the 60’s with the five of them standing in a field, and all looking incredible. It's so simple and so strong. It's very hard to present the event better than that.
This is slightly reminiscent of that… a ragtag group of people pulling together.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘This is a much more conceptual picture…. I was fascinated about the element of death that he was playing with at the time in his work. So, this is a photo of Damien in front of a work that consists of dead insects.
His makeup was done in such a way to resemble a skull. The eyes and the nose were painted black, the lips sucked in … it was all done in front of the camera. The only thing that I did in post-production was his jacket … because he wore a jacket by G Star named ‘3301’ so I took the “01” off, to leave ‘33’- which is the age that Jesus was supposed to have died - so it’s all conceptual and connected.
I took the subject and made him the subject of his work.
That's what I do a lot sometimes, and I believe that’s what made my work different than what others did when I came to the UK in 1979. In my early work with Joy Division, you can see the picture symbolises the music, and I use their bodies to visualise their work.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘Alright, and here we are at some colour work, another series of mine. All of these are fashion editorials bar one that was a Depeche Mode 12” sleeve cover.
I have touched upon this issue before, that I didn't know what to do with models, clothing. Especially with fashion - I had no idea. So, when I did some of these fashion-like things, I approached it quite graphically, that was my 'way out’ as it were. I made graphic images … and what I did was to go into a totally dark space, use a tripod this time, and then paint light with a little flashlight on whatever I wanted to see. So, with this technique, you leave the camera open, and the film accumulates the light. So, you really paint with light. Everything you see has been done with a torch light.
It's a very hit and miss method. I couldn’t predict what I was going to get exactly … not just because of the colour… but with this technique, when you paint with light with the camera open, you don't know if you've forgotten to light this area, or if you did that area twice already…. I started this in the early 80’s when I had no lights at a shoot I did with John Cale, and I did some with Morrissey years later, in an emergency situation, where I fell back on this method to save a shoot … and then I forgot about it until I started doing some work for fashion magazines, and I picked it up again.
Now I hadn't realised at the time, that Paolo Roversi also used this technique quite a bit … and he was not aware of me doing it. I did it before he started off to be honest… but he’s much better at it. I want to say that. Actually, Paolo and I are working on some shows together, using only this technique of lighting.
“Barbara II” was done for a Depeche Mode’s 12 inch single sleeve of ‘Policy Of Truth”. The other three I think I shot for LA Style Magazine … something like that … It doesn’t exist anymore. It was a large format, kind of like W.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘Alright, and here we are at some colour work, another series of mine. All of these are fashion editoria
‘Alright, and here we are at some colour work, another series of mine. All of these are fashion editorials bar one that was a Depeche Mode 12” sleeve cover.
I have touched upon this issue before, that I didn't know what to do with models, clothing. Especially with fashion - I had no idea. So, when I did some of these fashion-like things, I approached it quite graphically, that was my 'way out’ as it were. I made graphic images … and what I did was to go into a totally dark space, use a tripod this time, and then paint light with a little flashlight on whatever I wanted to see. So, with this technique, you leave the camera open, and the film accumulates the light. So, you really paint with light. Everything you see has been done with a torch light.
It's a very hit and miss method. I couldn’t predict what I was going to get exactly … not just because of the colour… but with this technique, when you paint with light with the camera open, you don't know if you've forgotten to light this area, or if you did that area twice already…. I started this in the early 80’s when I had no lights at a shoot I did with John Cale, and I did some with Morrissey years later, in an emergency situation, where I fell back on this method to save a shoot … and then I forgot about it until I started doing some work for fashion magazines, and I picked it up again.
Now I hadn't realised at the time, that Paolo Roversi also used this technique quite a bit … and he was not aware of me doing it. I did it before he started off to be honest… but he’s much better at it. I want to say that. Actually, Paolo and I are working on some shows together, using only this technique of lighting.
“Barbara II” was done for a Depeche Mode’s 12 inch single sleeve of ‘Policy Of Truth”. The other three I think I shot for LA Style Magazine … something like that … It doesn’t exist anymore. It was a large format, kind of like W.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘Alright, and here we are at some colour work, another series of mine. All of these are fashion editorials bar one that was a Depeche Mode 12” sleeve cover.
I have touched upon this issue before, that I didn't know what to do with models, clothing. Especially with fashion - I had no idea. So, when I did some of these fashion-like things, I approached it quite graphically, that was my 'way out’ as it were. I made graphic images … and what I did was to go into a totally dark space, use a tripod this time, and then paint light with a little flashlight on whatever I wanted to see. So, with this technique, you leave the camera open, and the film accumulates the light. So, you really paint with light. Everything you see has been done with a torch light.
It's a very hit and miss method. I couldn’t predict what I was going to get exactly … not just because of the colour… but with this technique, when you paint with light with the camera open, you don't know if you've forgotten to light this area, or if you did that area twice already…. I started this in the early 80’s when I had no lights at a shoot I did with John Cale, and I did some with Morrissey years later, in an emergency situation, where I fell back on this method to save a shoot … and then I forgot about it until I started doing some work for fashion magazines, and I picked it up again.
Now I hadn't realised at the time, that Paolo Roversi also used this technique quite a bit … and he was not aware of me doing it. I did it before he started off to be honest… but he’s much better at it. I want to say that. Actually, Paolo and I are working on some shows together, using only this technique of lighting.
“Barbara II” was done for a Depeche Mode’s 12 inch single sleeve of ‘Policy Of Truth”. The other three I think I shot for LA Style Magazine … something like that … It doesn’t exist anymore. It was a large format, kind of like W.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘Alright, and here we are at some colour work, another series of mine. All of these are fashion editorials bar one that was a Depeche Mode 12” sleeve cover.
I have touched upon this issue before, that I didn't know what to do with models, clothing. Especially with fashion - I had no idea. So, when I did some of these fashion-like things, I approached it quite graphically, that was my 'way out’ as it were. I made graphic images … and what I did was to go into a totally dark space, use a tripod this time, and then paint light with a little flashlight on whatever I wanted to see. So, with this technique, you leave the camera open, and the film accumulates the light. So, you really paint with light. Everything you see has been done with a torch light.
It's a very hit and miss method. I couldn’t predict what I was going to get exactly … not just because of the colour… but with this technique, when you paint with light with the camera open, you don't know if you've forgotten to light this area, or if you did that area twice already…. I started this in the early 80’s when I had no lights at a shoot I did with John Cale, and I did some with Morrissey years later, in an emergency situation, where I fell back on this method to save a shoot … and then I forgot about it until I started doing some work for fashion magazines, and I picked it up again.
Now I hadn't realised at the time, that Paolo Roversi also used this technique quite a bit … and he was not aware of me doing it. I did it before he started off to be honest… but he’s much better at it. I want to say that. Actually, Paolo and I are working on some shows together, using only this technique of lighting.
“Barbara II” was done for a Depeche Mode’s 12 inch single sleeve of ‘Policy Of Truth”. The other three I think I shot for LA Style Magazine … something like that … It doesn’t exist anymore. It was a large format, kind of like W.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘In a series focusing on artists, I also wrote to Gerhard Richter and asked to photograph him, and heagreed. I love Richter’s work and a lot of it is photography based.
I met him in his offices on a Saturday … and after I took some shots, I asked if we could we go elsewhere, and he had a studio at home … and in that studio we shot this photo.
He loves the picture a lot, because it reminded him of the painting he did of his daughter in a red dress... and a funny story is that as I only met him once, and then came to the opening of his Tate exhibition, he didn’t recognise me really.
When I tried to tell him who I was he said ‘No you’re George Clooney’ – he was confused because I had a beard and I guess he was aware I shot “The American” with George, so he mixed us up. I didn’t complain obviously, but his wife told him who I was and straightened out the situation.’ - Anton Corbijn
This is from a series called ‘Still Lives’. It was a conceptual series that was inspired by paparazzi photography. You always assume paparazzi photos are telling the truth, a moment of real life captured, caught candidly. People had often said that they found my work to be honest… which to me is questionable... but I had thought, ‘why not play with that notion of my work and photograph in a way that people assume this is the truth?’
So, they’re fake paparazzi images. They sometimes look more like stills from a movie, and this particular image of Kylie Minogue, was shot as if in ‘Rear Window’ as a reference to the Hitchcock film. Most of my series have a particular look that differentiates them from previous series. This is shot on Polapan, which is an instant black and white transparency film. I then printed it on colour paper in a way that was reminiscent of a movie poster left out in the sun for too long, so all that remains in colour, is blue, and a touch of pink. That’s how this series was made. I worked a lot with actors and musicians in this series, and here Kylie was shot in my home in London at that time.
When I started, everything I shot was black and white, because this was the only film I could develop myself. I shot, and still shoot, on a reasonably fast film called Kodak Tri-x - it’s quite grainy, which I really love - but initially it was something I had to use because of cost … I needed to use the same film for live shots and for outdoors… But then it became a choice because I felt so at home with this film, and it seemed to really capture how I look at things. Interestingly enough, when I use colour films, I'm always surprised by the results… when I shoot in black and white, I can totally predict the outcome.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘I knew he had this amazing physique. So, I suggested we shoot him like this … and he was happy to do so.
He has such a beautiful body and great hair. I think it's just him in a simple location. I mean, everything is simple about this picture. Just the person in that environment, quite organic.
He really liked the picture, but who wouldn’t if you look like that … I did it as an editorial for American Vogue.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘This is an assignment again for Vogue US.
I went to Chicago to photograph him on a Sunday morning, and he was about to open a show at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago at that time. So that's where this picture is taken from…. I actually shot this from inside the museum. They had all these colours on the window… and that is how I got the idea and how this picture came together: inside, shooting through the window.
Virgil was like a lot of great artists are… They're really quite humble and easy. The weekdays were spent in Paris working, but the weekends he’d be back in Chicago to be with his family.
He was very multifaceted… not shy in borrowing things from existing things … and I feel that's quite refreshing in a way. I don't think he was a designer in the old tradition of designers, but it's just very now and he made that very popular from the street up.’ - Anton Corbijn
‘So, this photograph of Clannad - beautiful Irish folk music band - was shot in County Donegal in the north of Ireland, and it evokes some Edvard Munch feelings … I used the end of day light. I then made some elements darker again with printing.
This became an album sleeve for them. It was all shot handheld. There's always a little movement in my photographs, because I tend to shoot to ‘one 60th of a second’ or even as slow as one ‘15th of a second’…
I’m pretty steady, but there is a little bit of movement that comes from the body, and that to me suggests that there is humanity in the way it’s shot … and that moment and imperfection, is perfection.’ - Anton Corbijn