Anton Corbijn: a national treasure in The Hague

Two times in the last month I’ve gone to see Anton Corbijn’s double exhibition at the Photo museum and the Municipal Museum in The Hague. The first time we were late and in a rush, but I did manage to shoot a few pictures of the man himself as he faced a two hour long queue lining up to get his catalogue signed. We didn’t queue.

Three weeks later, I took my time to see both exhibitions again and marvel at Anton Corbijn’s vision. These retrospective, wonderfully presented, shows made me more appreciative of his talent than I’ve been in the last few years. You could say I’d been taking it for granted.

I hadn’t seen his latest work, “Inwards and Onwards“, which I think is phenomenal. He’s dropped the laboured post processing (a big part of his look was created through the printing proces) and now creates what he wants more in-camera. The prints are a different kind of black. They often had a brownish, reddish hue before, due to the lith proces, but the newer prints now have a cleaner look, a fresher kind of matte black. Corbijn is shooting artists (painters, sculptors, writers, painters: Koon, Lucien Freud, Hirst, Marlene Dumas) rather than musicians – which made me see the work differently, not informed by my opinion of the music.

I may sneak in a third look.