For more than two decades, there is no doubt that Anton Corbin is the most famous rock photographer in the industry.

U2 lead singer Bono also made this comment on Anton’s visual works. He said: “Sometimes Anton can give you something you may not have at all...” If there are any photographers with To get the reputation of "image creator", it must be Anton Corbin.

In addition to being a still photographer, Anton Corbin also has another identity - a music video director. However, he was not ambitious enough to pursue a two-pronged career. He started his career as a photographer and then a music video director. It turned out that he did not have a plan. "Because the musicians I had photographed for them lobbied me to shoot their music videos," Anton said. From then on, Anton opened another door for his visual art work.

Following the initial launch of the Iron Triangle Spike Jonze, Chris Cunningham and Michel Gondry, this is the second round of The Work Of Director series of DVDs. This includes Anton Corbin's music video collection. Compared with the other three directors produced in this batch, such as Mark Romanek, Jonathan Glazer and Stephane Sednaoui, Anton is undoubtedly much more legendary and has a high status in the world.

Anton Corbin's The Work Of Director is a summary of his music video works from 1983 to 2005.

Photography leads to directing

For the author’s generation of music fans who grew up in the post-punk era of the 1980s, Anton Corbin’s photography of that year is undoubtedly the What a profound and vivid impression on us. He is a very cult photographer in the eyes of music fans.

For example, he shot the covers of two albums of post-collapse electronic musician Fad Gadget, Under The Flag and Gag, which are composed of human body lines, and the album of Liverpool psychedelic post-punk band Echo & The Bunnymen. Songs To Learn & Sing’s four extremely cool silhouettes, the vast scenes of U2’s The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree, as well as the many breathtaking photos he took on for the Manchester City Post-Punk legend Joy Division in his early years. photo. Under Anton's lens, a low-key aesthetic of black and white or monochrome is often gathered, and it seems to be a meaningful space for contemplation.

The tall and fifty-year-old Anton Corbin was born in Stern, the Netherlands. Later, he was deeply influenced by Joy Division and moved to London, England in 1979 to develop. From still photos to videos, Anton's MV works are always so unique.

His coarse-grained videos shot with Super 8, slow pace, low-cost production, and symbolic meaning are all different from the mainstream MVs in the 1980s that emphasized beauty, exaggeration, and eye-catching. . There is also his special love for desert and wilderness scenery, and the little bit of road movie atmosphere, which clearly shows Anton's strong style.

Anton Corbin's debut music video was in 1983 when he was invited by the German New Wave band Palais Schaumburg to shoot a MV for their song "Hockey", but he always regarded it as just a small test. work. Among the people who saw this MV at that time was Paul Morley of the British label ZTT. He admired Anton so much that he asked Anton to direct the work of their German electronic group Propaganda, Dr. Mabuse. That was Anton. Dong's first "official" MV work. In the same year, Japan leader David Sylvian saw Dr. Mabuse's MV on TV, and then he asked Anton to shoot a music video for his first solo single Red Guitar. His attitude as a music video director has since spread like wildfire.

Over the years, Anton has had the closest cooperation with the two major bands, U2 and Depeche Mode (in fact, he also worked closely with Echo & The Bunnymen for a while). He has even become DM's designated videographer.

You can see that DM’s MVs since the 1987 album Music For The Masses are almost all directed by Anton. He is also the regular producer of DM’s tour stage projection videos; in addition to short films, he also There are feature films shot for DM, music videos and concert recordings such as Strange (1988), Strange Too (1991), Devotional (1993) and One Night In Paris (2002), all of which were written by Anton.

Selected music short films

In The Work Of Director, it mainly carefully selects 24 music short films by Anton Corbin in the past 21 years. The range ranges from Dr. Mabuse, his official debut film Propaganda in 1984, to All These Things That I've Done, shot for the new generation New Wave band The Killers in Las Vegas in 2005.

Anton Corbin’s early works, Propaganda’s Dr. Mabuse are mysterious, suspenseful and intriguing, while David Sylvian’s Red Guitar captures the aesthetic and calm poet-singer temperament of “the most beautiful man in the world”. But in the same year, I held the microphone for Echo & The Bunnymen's Seven Seas, but it was so relaxed and fun. Back in the 1980s, Anton was also the official photographer of The Bunnymen. Let’s look at the short film of him performing the band’s song “The Game”. The Bunnymen were touring in Brazil at that time. Anton also used local materials to create a semi-documentary. Form filmed this MV.

There is no denying that Anton’s most gripping film ever was the Super 8 re-recording of the Joy Division classic Atmosphere when it was re-released in 1988, eight years after Ian Curtis’ death. In the short film, a group of children and dwarfs in monks' uniforms (these people in monks' uniforms have already appeared in Dr. Mabuse - could this be related to Anton's father being a missionary?), carrying the former Anton for Curtis The photos taken with JD also have the meaning of commemorating Curtis under the appeal of the black and white video. Another musician who committed suicide was Kurt Cobain. The MV for Nirvana's 1993 work Heart Shaped Box was jointly produced by Kurt and Anton. The content was all from Kurt's creative ideas (Kurt is included in the Booklet hand-drawn storyboard).

Anton’s two major customers. U2’s One (that’s the Director’s Cut version) featured Bono’s dad on stage, and the four of them were impressively dressed as “glamourous girls.” Electrical Storm featured drummer Larry Mullen Jr. and the “mermaid” performing a wet and passionate performance. Anton has shot as many as fourteen MVs for DM in the past, and the five carefully selected ones here are certainly representative. In Enjoy The Silence, Dave Gahan wears imperial clothes and walks around on the Swiss plateau, which is the most impressive. Dave in Walking In My Shoes looks like a devil, but he can also play a kitsch dressed up in It's No Good. nightclub band.

Anton’s music video is not just cool, but also has his humorous side. Even musicians can lower themselves and "play ghost and horse" for him, such as Ian McCulloch as a woman, Will Sergeant as a fish, and Les Pattinson as a penguin in Seven Seas; Metellica's Hero Of The Day Interspersed among the stories of "depressed TV addicts" are the band pretending to be TV game shows, news anchors, and western drama series; former Black Flag singer Henry Rollins not only plays the hot "red man" in Liars, but also plays the role of a policeman. Jonathan Donahue, who plays Superman Mercury Rev, plays an astronaut in Opus 40. The Killers’ All These Things That I’ve Done temporarily puts down its stylish appearance and transforms into a Western cowboy. Even Anton doesn’t forget to make guest appearances, such as playing the nightclub emcee in DM’s It’s No Good.

In addition to The Killers, his recent works also include Travis's 2003 work Re-Offender. The film is based on the story of their internal strife behind the stage. The band is in black and white throughout the whole process. Hit the show.

The Lost Gem in the Ocean

The Stuff section (i.e. Bonus) contains quite a few of Anton’s hidden gem videos. For example, his first directing film in 1983 - Palais Schaumburg's Hocky has also been released (but Anton only has a VHS copy of it). It has an interesting shooting method like the MV of a new wave band in the 1980s, and its humor has been seen for a long time. feel. Another treasure is the essence of the MV shot for the 1988 album Front By Front by Belgian EBM pioneer Front 242.

In addition, there is also the film Some Yoyo Stuff that he shot for psychedelic musician Captain Beefheart (real name Don Van Vliet), with the help of David Lynch; there is also a production special for U2's Electrical Storm; and he was The MTV Promos short film shot by Beck and Dave Grohl (the latter has his hilarious cross-dressing performance) is also very interesting.

Not to be missed is the documentary NotNa directed by Lance Bangs for Anton, including Iggy Pop, New Order, Ian McCulloch (Echo & The Bunnymen), Bono ( U2), Dave Gahan (Depeche Mode), Martin Gore (Depeche Mode), Michael Stipe (R.E.M.), Claudia Brucken (Propaganda), Kurt Cobain (Nirvana), Lars Ulrich (Metellica), Herbert Gronemeyer, Joseph Auther, Fran Healy ( Travis) and even Neil Spencer (NME editor) and other friends in the industry appeared to give their own opinions, which was very star-studded.

Of course, Anton Corbin's most anticipated work in recent years is the 2007 music biopic "Control" he shot for Ian Curtis. Part of the plot of the film is based on the 1995 book "Touching From A Distance" published by Curtis' widow. This film has been widely recognized as the directorial debut of cinematographer Anton Cobain, and it is also the first official feature film of Sam Taylor-Wood, one of the most important contemporary British artists. Control also did not disappoint, receiving rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival.