Anton Corbijn - Werk

Essay (English)
by Bernd Skupin
Paperback
Size: cm 30 x 24
pp. 176
182 colour-illustrations
Schirmer/Mosel (April 2000)
ISBN 3-88814-927-4
List Price: € 49 $ 47,50
Our Price: € 38,7 $ 37,50

"I'm looking for the person behind the surface", Anton Corbijn once said. This book traces different approaches to that ideal as revealed in his work from the 1970s to the present. Born in The Netherlands in 1955, Corbijn moved to London in 1979 and has since become one of the most sought-after photographer in the world of contemporary music and culture. His harsh, direct and powerful images fostered a new era in the relationship of photography and music. Corbijn's pictures have become as well known as the songs of the rock stars he has been portraying for the past twenty-five years. Even his subjects found aspects of their personalities exposed which they hadn't noticed themselves but which are now inscribed as reality in our collective memory. U2's Bono remarks on the visionary quality of Corbijn's work: "Sometimes he can give you a substance that you may not have....but are working towards." if any photographer deserves the cachet , image maker", it has to be Anton Corbijn. Take Joy Division, Depeche Mode, U2 or Metallica, whose public image was unmistakably stamped and ultimately defined by his portraits, CD covers and videos. Over the years Corbijn has extended the range of his portrait gallery to include star personalities from literature, fashion and the cinema. Celebrity writers, supermodels, directors, actors have joined the heroes and villains of the rock scene. The result is an iridescent and yet enigmatic spectrum of the big names whose creative energy has decisively influenced today's zeitgeist, viewed with the eyes of a photographer who sees through the superficial façade of poses, image and glamour.