Anton Corbijn: Light, Shadow and Rock 'n' Roll

Not everyone can persuade Bowie, Waits and Bono to sit still, but Anton Corbijn did. The Dutch photographer who started with his father's camera became rock 'n' roll's most sought-after image-maker. Fifty years later, Anton Corbijn appears: a book that shows how a man with a camera captured the world […]

Not everyone can get Bowie, Waits, and Bono to sit still, but Anton Corbijn can. The idiosyncratic Dutchman who started out with his father's camera became the go-to photographer for rock 'n' roll. Fifty years later, Corbijn, Anton: a book that shows how one man with a camera colored the world in black and white. Specially for MASTERS, he selects 10 photographs from his oeuvre that he holds dear.

Anton Corbijn (born 1955, Strijen) discovered photography as a high school student, preferring to watch bands rather than books. With his father's camera, he shot his first concert photo in 1972… and never lost focus. What began as a hobby in the Strijen open air grew into a career capturing the world's biggest names: from Bowie to Burroughs, from Sinatra to Ai Weiwei. In 1979, he moved to London to be "closer to the music," and succeeded: he became the staff photographer for U2 and Depeche Mode, and a living legend in the world of portrait and music photography. Self-taught, he remained true to his subject: artists, in all their raw humanity. But Corbijn proved to be more than just a man with a camera. He directed some eighty iconic music videos, designed album covers and logos, and signed over a hundred album covers. His work fills books, galleries, and museums worldwide. In 2007 he ventured into film with Control, about Joy Division singer Ian Curtis – the band that once drove him to London. After that followed The American, A Most Wanted Man en LifeCorbijn is an artist who prefers to observe rather than pose, but whose work is so iconic that others have long since done so. A master of light, shadow, and understatement.

Bruce Springsteen, New Jersey, 2005

“You can't think of a nicer or better-looking man to photograph than Bruce Springsteen, so I felt privileged to work with him on the album cover of Devils and Dust In 2005, we shot at his New Jersey estate for two half-days and captured beautiful images. There was no record company or management present. It was a blessed shoot, even though it was quite chilly outside. The photo above is an outtake I particularly love. The way the sun hits the lens and the white spot on the horse's head—that's almost impossible to direct.

David Gilmour, just outside London, 2024

“This is a recent photo, from 2024, that I took for his last album, Luck and Strange, which I also designed. He's still a remarkably handsome man, just as he always was. I loved Pink Floyd as a kid, and I still do.

Elvis Costello, Amsterdam, 1977

“One of my oldest photos, from 1977, when I still lived in the Netherlands. Elvis Costello had just released his first album, My Aim Is True, which I was crazy about, and I was asked to photograph him for the Dutch magazine EARWe went to his tiny hotel room in Amsterdam to take this photo. Although I usually don't like photographing musicians with their instruments, I thought it worked well in this case. The photo later became the cover of his autobiography, which I was incredibly proud of.

Kate Bush, London 1982

“One of the few photos I shot in a photo studio. I wanted to create an image in the style of old Hollywood, so she lay on the floor with her hair thrown around her. It was for NME, and a variation of this photo became the cover. I think it was in 1982, the second and last time I photographed her. I find her music incredibly intoxicating and unparalleled."

Kiki Smith, Catskill, 2022

I discovered her work in Italy, first at the Lorcan O'Neill Gallery and later at the Venice Biennale. I was completely blown away. I asked if I could visit her at her place in upstate New York, and that's where I took this photo of her, with the white bird she was working on at the time.

Marlene Dumas, Amsterdam, 2000

“In the late nineties, Marlene and I did a project together that we STRIPPING GIRLS We mentioned it, and we've kept in touch ever since. She's a wonderful artist, not a fan of the camera, but I really love this photo we took at the end of the project. She radiates enormous strength here."

Metallica, Nuremberg 1998

"Heavy metal outfits! Black sunglasses and leather biker jackets! Metallica is fantastic to photograph. And much more fun to work with than you might think. I started in 1996 with Load, then Reload, S&M 1 (available in 2), Garage Inc., St Anger, +2 en Death magnetic, just as Lulu with Lou Reed. In no particular order, and often only for the inside or back cover. This particular photo was never used by Metallica, but it's one of my favorite images of the band.

Nick Cave, London, 1999

Nick Cave as a Southern Baptist preacher. Here he's holding an old Bible I happened to have at home, and then we drove to Hyde Park to take this photo, just when the sky looked spectacular—that helped the image immensely. The photo is from a series called 33 Still Lives, in which I used a blue tint to evoke a movie poster that had been left out in the sun for too long. The idea was to create fake paparazzi photos in which people pretended to be in certain situations. In this way, I added much-needed mystery. Mystery, after all, is a valuable commodity.

Liam & Noel Gallagher, Coney Island, 1995

“Liam and Noel Gallagher photographed on the famous Coney Island boardwalk, where I took them for a shoot for Entertainment WeeklyDuring Oasis' group photos, Liam walked out at one point, but thankfully he came back for the duo shots! They're fantastic on camera, I have to say.

Siouxsie Sioux, Kyoto, 1982

“My first trip to Japan was with Siouxsie and the Banshees. It was incredible: we were there in early April when all the cherry trees were in bloom, and the culture felt completely alien and enchanting on a first visit anyway. I had to write a cover for NME photographing with Siouxsie, and we were both very interested in creating an image that referenced The Night Porter With Charlotte Rampling—something powerful with an undertone of sensuality. We took the photo on my very last morning in Kyoto, in my hotel room. A simple idea, with the soft light of the early morning. It made for a beautiful cover.