Anton Corbijn

A polymath in photography, music videos, feature films, graphic design and commercials, Dutchman Anton Corbijn is perhaps best known for immortalizing some of the greatest artists of our time. His iconic portraits of musicians, directors and artists like Joy Division, Depeche Mode, Tom Waits, U2, the Rolling Stones, Martin Scorsese, Clint Eastwood, Gerhard Richter, Ai Weiwei, Marlene Dumas amongst others, are praised for the way they capture the soul and charisma of his subjects.

Born in the Netherlands in 1955, Corbijn first started shooting music bands on his father’s camera at age 17. “For me the moment that somebody actually published these pictures was huge,” he says. “I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I just wanted to somehow have a connection to music. And this seemed to me the best recipe for a great life, to be close to music as a photographer. So although I couldn’t really take a picture at all, I just put everything into it. That moment was significant for me in the sense that I found my Eureka moment.”

Effortlessly moving in the early 80’s from photography into music videos Corbijn has since made approximately 80 promos for people like U2, Johnny Cash, Arcade Fire, Depeche Mode, Nirvana, Metallica, Nick Cave, Coldplay and The Killers. He is the Creative Director behind the visual output of Depeche Mode and U2 having handled the principal promotion and sleeve photography for both bands well over three decades. In 2006 Anton Corbijn started working on his first feature film “CONTROL” about the life, and death, of Ian Curtis, Joy Division’s lead singer. The film won around 20 awards worldwide, including 5 BIFA’s & the Camera d’Or Special Mention at Cannes Film Festival 2007. Corbijn has since made “THE AMERICAN” starring George Clooney (2010), “A MOST WANTED MAN”, based on the novel by John Le Carré featuring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman (2014) and “LIFE”, about James Dean and photographer Dennis Stock, which stars Robert Pattinson and Dane DeHaan (2015).

IG: @antoncorbijn4real