Artist of the Week: Anton Corbijn

 Anton Corbijn

Anton Corbijn's pictures were mostly of celebrities, but the center of attention in the photos were rarely the celebrities themselves, but instead what they were doing.

I would categorize the photos shown as being artistic portraits. Most of the famous film works that I have seen

before are in color. Color film was invented in the fifties, and someone who does photoshoots with celebrities for

a living would most likely be able to afford color film for them. This means that it was an artistic choice to be

using black and white film. I am quite fond of the black and white style, and also like the fact that the celebrity

isn't the main attraction in the pictures.

If someone replicated his work, the similarity depends entirely on whether or not the new artist would replicate the entire method or just the style. The style could be replicated with a digital camera and some editing software. Replicating the method would be more difficult. The general aesthetic and positioning of the people in the photo wouldn't change, but the subject matter would obviously change. Besides, a lot of the people he has photographed are no longer living.

“My work is not quite perfect. Perhaps it still contains something of life. Because perfection often prevents the work from breathing.”

His work shows people, and people are inherently not perfect.  Corbijn also doesn't try to make his photos perfect.  These shots are showing people being just that.  Perfection also restricts the ability to interpret the photo for others, since there is one solid message behind it.