A Hasselblad & three lenses

Anton Corbijn

Anton Corbijn

Anton Corbijn is a Dutch photographer and director.

He has published 18 books, directed 80 music videos and made four feature films.

Why Anton

At the age of 21 I was given 3 posters from my work colleagues as a birthday gift.

Anton Corbijn

Anton Corbijn

Anton Corbijn

Hugo McGuiness

This is why Anton

29 years later and I still have all three

For 10 years I worked in the music industry

Anton Corbijn

Known for melancholic, black-and-white high contrast photography.

His images are raw, and without the glamour associated with many of his subjects from the music & film industry

Anton Corbijn

In his own words

“I feel that what I photograph is that part of the real person that should be in the picture,"

"So it can't be just composition. I set something up but I let people free within the setup. There's always a naturalism somewhere but within my boundaries.

I photograph usually at a 60th of a second or a 30th of a second, so there is already a natural movement in the frame without people really being able to put a finger on it.

Anton Corbijn

Anton Corbijn

His philosophy is very simple

• No tripod and no studio

• Just available light and a hand-held camera.

• Works hand-held and he sometimes catches unintended objects in the background

Anton Corbijn

• He has one photo-assistant and one personal assistant.

• He doesn’t lug around a mountain of equipment.

• Cropping is rare

• Sharpness is overrated

Anton Corbijn

All he needs are two Hasselblad cameras (a 501CM and a 503CW)

and three lenses (60, 80 and 120 mm)..

Anton Corbijn

Are you all digital now?

I'm not actually ... I still work in analogue. There are some elements of digital photography that I don't really like, such as the fact that you see the results immediately

Interview 2005

Anton Corbijn

I've always thought photography was a bit of an adventure.

To come home with the film, develop it then look at the results has a sense of excitement.

Anton Corbijn

Are you all digital now?

I'm trying to get to grips with it. I sometimes feel like everyone's been driving cars and I've been taking the bus

Inevitably, I'll have to change at some point as I feel that companies are investing more in digital technology now so you're left with paper and film that are no longer as good.

Anton Corbijn

Photoshop is a different matter as it's post-production really.

It's like an extension of your darkroom so I have no problem with it - although you do see many examples of it being used badly.

Anton Corbijn

I took a beautiful picture of Nelson Mandela, which we worked on for a week in Photoshop until it ended up a perfect picture, but it had lost all the soul ... so we printed the original.

Anton Corbijn

Some images intentionally include motion-blur, like his portrait of Luciano Pavarotti, growling like a death metal star in Turin back in 1996Anton Corbijn

Anton Corbijn

It’s extraordinary the way he reduces the image to something simple, like using a very narrow depth of field to pick out someone’s eyes while everything else is out of focus.

Anton Corbijn

Will anyone who visits the show take the time to appreciate it with their eyes, and not their camera phones?

Photography as a slow pursuit is being lost, and Mr Corbijn is unwilling to spend his time to speed it up to today's pace

Anton Corbijn