Anton
Corbijn (Anton Johannes Gerrit Corbijn van Willenswaard) (born 20
May 1955) is a Dutch photographer, music video director, and film
director. 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 for almost three decades. Some of
his works include music videos for Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the
Silence" (1990), U2's "One" (version 1) (1991), Bryan
Adams' "Do I Have to Say the Words? and Nirvana's "Heart-Shaped
Box" (1993), as well as the Ian Curtis biographical film Control
(2007), The American (2010), and A Most Wanted Man (2014), based on
John le Carré's 2008 novel of the same name.
Early life and family
Anton
Johannes Gerrit Corbijn van Willenswaard was born on 20 May 1955 in
Strijen in the Netherlands, where his father had been appointed as
parson to the Dutch Reformed Church the previous year. His father,
Anton Corbijn van Willenswaard (1917–2007), took up the same
position in Hoogland (1966) and Groningen (1972), moving his wife and
four children with him. His mother, Marietje Groeneboer (1925–2011),
was a nurse and was raised in a parson's family. Photographer and
director Maarten Corbijn (born 1960) is a younger brother.
Grandfather Anton Johannes (Corbijn) van Willenswaard (1886–1959)
was an art teacher at Christian schools in Hilversum and an active
member in the local Dutch Reformed Church in Hilversum.
Photography
Corbijn
began his career as a music photographer when he saw the Dutch
musician Herman Brood playing in a café in Groningen around 1975. He
took a lot of photographs of the band Herman Brood & His Wild
Romance and these led to a rise in fame for Brood and in exposure for
Corbijn.[citation needed]
From
the late 1970s the London based New Musical Express (NME), a weekly
music paper, featured his work on a regular basis and would often
have a photograph by him on the front page. One such occasion was a
portrait of David Bowie wearing a loincloth backstage in New York
when starring in The Elephant Man.. In the early years of
London-based The Face, a glossy monthly post-punk life style / music
magazine, Corbijn was a regular contributor. He made his name
photographing in black-and-white but in May 1989 he began taking
pictures in colour using filters. His first venture in this medium
was for Siouxsie Sioux. Between 1998-2000, in collaboration with the
painter Marlene Dumas, he worked on a project called "Stripping
Girls", which took the strip clubs and peep shows of Amsterdam
as their subject; while Corbijn later exhibited photographs, Dumas
took Polaroids which she then used as sources for her paintings.
Corbijn
has photographed Bob Dylan, Joy Division, Depeche Mode, Tom Waits,
Bruce Springsteen, Prāta Vētra, Peter Hammill, Miles Davis, Björk,
Captain Beefheart, Kim Wilde, Marc Almond, Robert De Niro, Stephen
Hawking, Elvis Costello, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Morrissey, Peter
Murphy, Simple Minds, Clint Eastwood, The Cramps, Roxette and Herbert
Grönemeyer, Annie Lennox, Eurythmics, amongst others. Perhaps his
most famous, and longest standing, association is with U2, having
taken pictures of the band on their first US tour, as well as taking
pictures for their Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby albums (et al.) and
directing a number of accompanying videos.
Other
album covers featuring work by Corbijn include those for Springsteen,
Nick Cave, Siouxsie's second band The Creatures, Bryan Adams,
Metallica, Therapy?, The Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, The Killers,
Simple Minds, R.E.M., The Bee Gees, Saybia and Moke.
Film directing
Corbijn
began his music video directing career when Palais Schaumburg asked
him to direct a video. After seeing the resulting video for Hockey,
the band Propaganda had Corbijn direct Dr. Mabuse. After that he
directed videos for David Sylvian, Echo & the Bunnymen, Golden
Earring, Front 242, Depeche Mode, Roxette and U2. His first video in
colour was made for U2 in 1984 for their single "Pride". In
2005 Palm Pictures released a DVD collection of Corbijn's music video
output as part of the Director's Label series.
In
1994 Corbijn directed a short film about Captain Beefheart/Don Van
Vliet for the BBC called Some Yoyo Stuff. He made his feature film
debut with Control, a film about the life of Joy Division frontman
Ian Curtis. It premiered to rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival
on 17 May 2007. The film is based on Deborah Curtis' book Touching
from a Distance about her late husband and the biography Torn Apart
by Lindsay Reade (Tony Wilson's ex-wife) and Mick Middles. Although
shown outside the Palme d'Or competition, Control was the big winner
of the Director's Fortnight winning the CICAE Art & Essai prize
for best film, the "Regards Jeunes" Prize award for best
first or second directed feature film and the Europa Cinemas Label
prize for best European film in the sidebar.
2010
Corbijn returned as a director with the character-based thriller The
American, starring George Clooney.
On
26 October 2011 Corbijn directed a webcast by Coldplay from the Plaza
de Toros de Las Ventas in Madrid, Spain.
His
film A Most Wanted Man was released in 2014. The John Le Carré novel
of the same name, which is loosely based on the true War on Terror
story of Murat Kurnaz, was set in part in Hamburg, as parts of the
movie were.
In
February 2014, he start filming his next project Life about James
Dean and photographer Dennis Stock.
