Anton Corbijn, born in 1955 in Strijen, discovered photography through his love of music while still in high school. He took his first photos with his father's camera at an outdoor concert in 1972. He soon switched from stage photography to portrait photography, initially only portraits of musicians. Anton moved to London in 1979 to follow his love of music and today is widely regarded as one of the most influential photographers in both the world of music and portrait photography.
A self-taught photographer, he changed his approach to photography a few times over the years, but stayed relatively close to his first subject: artists in general and musicians in particular. Some of his best-known photographs are of: Tom Waits, David Bowie, Kurt Cobain, Ian Curtis, Clint Eastwood, Bryan Adams, Cameron Diaz, Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Joni Mitchell, Robert De Niro, Gerhard Richter, Ai Weiwei, Lucian Freud ... and he is considered the "house" photographer for U2 for almost 40 years and for Depeche Mode for almost as long.
Anton Corbijn worked in film and video with some of the musicians he photographed and in 1983 was one of the first still photographers to direct music videos. Since then, he has made about 80 music videos for U2, Depeche Mode, Nirvana, Metallica, Nick Cave, Johnny Cash, Arcade Fire, Coldplay and The Killers, among others. In 1993, he also directed a short film with and about Don Van Vliet a.k.a. Captain Beefheart called "Some Yo Yo Stuff."
His music video work is highly acclaimed and earned him an MTV award for Nirvana's "Heart Shaped Box," a CADS (Creative and Design Awards) award for "outstanding achievement" for his body of work in 2005 and a Golden Frog in Lodz in 2007 for his outstanding contribution to music videos. He was the first director ever to receive this award in that category. In 2005, Palm Pictures released a DVD featuring the series Directors.
Since 1990, in addition to photography and video, Anton engaged in graphic design to create logos, posters and CD covers. Although not conventionally trained in graphic design, he found his style by painting his own fonts. Anton successfully designed posters and record covers for artists such as U2, Depeche Mode, Herbert Grönemeyer etc., he designed the logo for the Dutch city of The Hague, he reinterpreted the famous logo of the luxury house Chanel for their Haute Couture Show in 2021 etc.....
Anton Corbijn's exhibitions are very successful in Europe and his work can be seen in museums and galleries and in more than 15 published books.
His most recent books are DM.AC, created with the full cooperation of the band Depeche Mode with more than 500 images from Corbin's personal archives, some never before seen, as well as Corbin's handwritten captions and an in-depth interview with Anton.
MOØDe presents images from Anton's extensive body of work in which he explores the crossover between photography and the fashion world, including portraits of figures such as Alexander McQueen, Donatella Versace, Tom Waits, Keith Richards, Kate Moss, Björk, Clint Eastwood etc...The book contains some 200 photographs, many of them published for the first time, and the world premiere exhibition in Knokke-Heist, in 2020.
WAITS/CORBINE, which was a limited edition collaboration between Anton and Tom Waits, and sold out within a week of publication.
Two retrospective books: '1-2-3-4' which celebrates his 40 years of photography with bands and 'Hollands Deep' which shows his progression as an artist over the past 40 years.
In addition, Anton's work has been featured on more than 100 record/CD covers by artists such as U2, R.E.M., The Bee Gees, Morrissey, The Rolling Stones, John Lee Hooker, Bryan Ferry, The Killers, Bruce Springsteen, James Last, JJ Cale, Nick Cave, Depeche Mode and Metallica.
For Depeche Mode, he designed both stage sets and on-stage visuals for all their world tours since 1993.
In 2005, Anton Corbijn began working (directing/producing) on his first feature film "CONTROL," which was released in October 2007. It was his most ambitious project to date and a further expansion of his multifaceted artistic career. The film is a love story about the life and death of Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division. This subject was close to Anton's heart because Joy Division was the reason he moved from the Netherlands to London because he wanted to be "closer to the origins of their music." "CONTROL" won about 20 awards worldwide, including 5 BIFAs.
He directed a second feature film, "The American," starring George Clooney, which reached No. 1 in the U.S. in 2010. His third feature, "A Most Wanted Man," based on John Le Carré's novel starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, premiered at the 2014 Sundance Festival, and "LIFE," a feature film starring Robert Pattinson and Dane DeHaan, premiered at the 2015 Berlinale.
