You might be familiar with Anton Corbijn’s recent film work (Control, The American) or his music videos for bands like Nirvana, U2, and Depeche Mode, but it was photography — particularly portraiture — that first launched his career. In Inwards and Onwards, currently on view at Amsterdam’s Foam Gallery, the Dutch photographer returns to his roots, training an intense lens on a few of his favorite artists in an examination of the creative process.
“The images are basically from the past eight years,” Corbijn explained to The New York Times back in November. “After 2002, when I did my self-portraits, there was a whole period that I started in the early ’70s that I felt I had finished. I wasn’t sure what direction to go to, so I was just taking pictures. But after a few years, it dawned on me that I was just going back to basics — taking simple black-and-white photographs of people I wanted to meet.” From a candid portrait of Alexander McQueen hiding behind a turtleneck in his studio, to a photo of a naked Iggy Pop sprawled out in Central Park, to an older shot of his one-time housemate Kate Moss, see some of our favorite black and white images from the exhibition after the jump.
Alexander McQueen London, 2007. © Anton Corbijn. Courtesy of Foam Amsterdam
Anthony Kiedis, West Palm Beach 2003. © Anton Corbijn. Courtesy of Foam Amsterdam
Gerhard Richter Cologne, 2010. © Anton Corbijn. Courtesy of Foam Amsterdam
Tom Waits California, 2004. © Anton Corbijn. Courtesy of Stellan Holm Gallery
Bruce Springsteen New Jersey, 2005. © Anton Corbijn. Courtesy of Stellan Holm Gallery
Kate Moss New York, 1993. © Anton Corbijn. Courtesy of Stellan Holm Gallery
Richard Prince New York, 2010. © Anton Corbijn. Courtesy of Stellan Holm Gallery
Iggy Pop New York, 2003. © Anton Corbijn. Courtesy of Stellan Holm Gallery
Anselm Kiefer Barjac, 2008. © Anton Corbijn. Courtesy of Stellan Holm Gallery
Lucian Freud London, 2008. © Anton Corbijn. Courtesy of Stellan Holm Gallery