Word: corbijn
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...October 1979, photographer Anton Corbijn, the son of a rural Dutch Protestant minister, set out for England in pursuit of Unknown Pleasures. That was the title of the dark, expansive debut album from the Manchester post-punk band Joy Division, and to Corbijn it was an artistic clarion call. "I thought, 'I want to be where that music comes from,' " says Corbijn, now 52. "It was my mission to photograph Joy Division." Within two weeks he took an iconic picture of the band that showed singer and lyricist Ian Curtis turning back toward the camera, with unwitting portent, while...
...love of music that drove Corbijn to take up photography in the first place. As a shy, gangly teenager, he would go to gigs on his own and take his father's camera, he says, "purely to get close to the musicians without looking like an idiot." From there, Corbijn developed into one of the most highly regarded photographers of his era, with stars as diverse as Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash, the Arctic Monkeys, Robert De Niro and Clint Eastwood lining up to be his subjects. His portraits have been exhibited in art galleries around the world...
...Much of Corbijn's work is distinctively grainy, black and white or with a sandy brown or metallic blue sheen. It's unglamorous, but that's the point. "For all that kind of stylized decadence in some of his photography, his eye was always mocking it, mocking celebrity," says Bono of U2, whom Corbijn helped transform from a scruffy band of Irish rockers with mullets to global superstars. "It's a Dutch reformer's eye. I don't think he even knows how Protestant he is." Corbijn's relationship with U2 stretches back 25 years and has always gone beyond...
...better musicians can sometimes rise above this threshold of dreck, often by enlisting a more talented photographer. Photographer Anton Corbijn has been an important influence on the careers of people as diverse as David Bowie and Tricky, perfecting the superstar pose even while he pokes fun at it. Or at least that’s how I rationalize my love affair with his work. The truth is that the Corbijn’s cover of U2’s Joshua Tree album is indelibly associated with the album itself, which will forever have a place in my heart...