Anton Corbijn is one of the very great photographers of our time. For decades he’s been taking pictures of the most popular and most famous artists. His clients all have big names, ranging from the Rolling Stones to U2, from Naomi Campbell to Kate Moss and from Johnny Depp to Cameron Diaz.
Not long ago his exhibition “Anton Corbijn. Retrospektive Hollands Deep & 1-2-3-4” could be seen at the C/O in Berlin. The exhibition was really impressive and absolutely worth visiting. There were many visitors and admirers but the artist himself remained unnoticed. For a very, very long time he kept standing in the center of his exhibition and I could see how the people were passing by one after another, raving about his photos without even looking at him once. In the photo he’s the man with the scarf standing further behind who’s staring at his cellphone.
What could be the reason that nobody has an image of this great artist? Is that only the case with him, or do people simply not know the face behind the camera? Who can tell the faces of Anton Corbijn or Helmut Newton, who knows what Peter Lindbergh and Elliott Erwitt look like?
