Over the years, a parade of (rock) stars passed in front of photographer Anton Corbijn’s lens. But Corbijn was too often mistaken for a music photographer, he says. In a new book he highlights the role of fashion in his work.
April 2011, New York. Anton Corbijn is on his way to a photo shoot with actor Philip Seymour Hoffman for Vogue. “I was nervous because I wanted to ask him to star in my new movie that afternoon. It soon turned out that Hoffman had little appetite for the session. “Philip, how are you?” I asked as neutrally as possible.
He turned out to be furious with the stylist, in the other room she in turn claimed that Hoffman was acting like a jerk. When trying on it also turned out that the ordered clothes were too small. Everything had to be entertained: Hoffman, in his underpants, and I were waiting in the room and no one dared to enter. “What about that movie?” He suddenly asked. Then we talked for 45 minutes about the script and its role in it. A few days after the shoot, he agreed to star in my movie A most wanted man. It would turn out to be his last starring role.
“The photo I shot for fashion magazine Vogue has now been overtaken by reality: Hoffman is leaning against two street signs with” one way “on them. His suit is untidy, he almost looks confused. The picture is correct: he died of an overdose three years later. The street signs turned out to be a kind of indication. ”
The portrait of Hoffman is included in Corbijn’s photo book MOØDe, which will be published this month. The book is a four-part: it contains portraits of photo models, of fashion designers such as Donatella Versace, Virgil Abloh, Ann Demeulemeester and Alexander McQueen, there is a part with photos of world stars and then another part photos taken on behalf of fashion houses and sheets.
“It is a book in which you see how clothing can play an important role in photography,” Corbijn (65) explains. He dug through his oeuvre especially for this selection. “The book is not about haute couture, but about everyday clothing: T-shirt, jeans, and hat.” Corbijn selected photos of people who, in his view, look striking. Different. “People who make a statement with their clothes, wear something. How they look is an extension of what they make, or who they are. “The book also includes photos of celebrities such as Bono and then Queen Beatrix. “I found Beatrix interesting because her clothing supports her official stature.”
“The book is an attempt to place my work in a different context, so that people look at it in a fresh way,” says Corbijn. According to him, his work in the past has too often been limited to mere music photography. “When people only know you that way, you limit your audience. I’ve always said that my work is portrait photography, in the broadest sense of the word. ”
As a child he did not learn much about fashion. Corbijn was born in Strijen, a farming community where the church was central. Corbijn remembers his days in Strijen as a period “in which everything was always dark”. “On Sunday everyone went to church dressed in black. Both men and women wore hats. The rest of the week it was also important not to stand out. In Strijen, you always had to make sure that you fell completely away. “At the age of 9 he saw a picture of The Beatles at the hairdresser: identical hair, the same jackets. “Very neat actually, but I noticed that they were different from the people in our village. I knew immediately: things are happening elsewhere in the world and even in the Netherlands that I do not see on my “island” in Strijen, South Holland. It was the first time I had glimpsed a world I wanted to belong to. ”
Corbijn became world famous for his powerful black and white images of musicians and bands such as Miles Davis, U2 and the Rolling Stones. The photos in the new book sometimes have a completely different look. He experimented with other techniques for his fashion photography. “In the eighties I really had no idea what to do with fashion and models, it was all new to me. In the beginning, as a photographer, I was mainly recording, instead of directing. I dared to take a picture, but was too shy to bend the image to my will. I came up with tricks to mask the uneasiness and uncertainty in the field of fashion. I started to approach photography graphically. Then I darkened a room, then I opened the shutter speed of my camera and carefully exposed what I wanted to show in the photo with a flashlight. For example, I portrayed model Paige Hall by lighting only her dress. The light will make that dress pop out. It is painting with light. ”
The photo book MOØDe has been published by Hannibal / Kannibaal. The exhibition of the same name will open on 26 September in the Scharpoord cultural center, in Knokke.
