FEATURE:
A Fresh Focus
IN THIS PHOTO: PJ Harvey in 1998/PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Corbijn
Anton Corbijn’s Icon Award and the Importance of Music Photography
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THIS was announced…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1982/PHOTO CREDIT: Anton Corbijn
a little while ago, but I want to come to it now. Music photography is hugely important. I think that it is underrated and not talked about a lot. I can see why artists get coverage and attention. However, we cannot really overlook the importance and role of music photographers. There are so many great music photographers working today. Award shows celebrating them should very much be highlighted more. I grew up reading music magazines and seeing artists of the day shot. Wonderful poses and terrific compositions. Images that will endure forever. I guess all big music fans have their favourite music photographer. There are these icons that have worked with some of the all-time best artists. One of those legends who is being honoured very shortly is Anton Corbijn. I think I mentioned him recently in a Kate Bush feature. He took some shots of her in 1982. He photographed her for an NME interview around the release of her fourth studio album, The Dreaming. I am going to come to a feature about Corbijn soon. However, Rolling Stone wrote how this wonderful and decades-successful photographer is being awarded at the forthcoming Abbey Road Music Photography Awards:
“Dutch photographer, filmmaker, and music video director Anton Corbijn will be presented with the Icon Award at the annual Abbey Road Music Photography Awards.
Corbijn has photographed numerous notable subjects over the course of his 40-plus-year photography career, including Tom Waits, David Bowie, Kurt Cobain, Ian Curtis, Clint Eastwood, Bryan Adams, Cameron Diaz, Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Joni Mitchell, Robert De Niro, Gerhard Richter, Ai Weiwei, and Lucian Freud. He is considered to be the house photographer for U2 and Depeche Mode, and has shot both artists for several decades. He has directed music videos for artists like U2, Depeche Mode, Nirvana, Metallica, Nick Cave, Johnny Cash, Arcade Fire, Coldplay, and The Killers.
“Photographing musicians was a love that became a full-on mission in the early ‘70s,” Corbijn said in a statement. “From hanging around the front of the stage to being 100 percent in charge, it’s been an exciting place to be. I like to think I evolved over the years, but I am still excited by music and photographing musicians now and then. To receive recognition from a body that contains the name of Abbey Road and with some of my peers as judges, I can only be grateful! Thank you!”
Abbey Road’s Director of Marketing & Creative, Mark Robertson, added, “Anton Corbijn’s work has been part of the cultural fabric of modern music for over five decades. His photography doesn’t just document — it defines, it innovates, and it inspires artists, fans and photographers alike. At Abbey Road, we’re thrilled to celebrate a true icon whose artistry continues to influence.”
Previous winners of the Icon Award, selected by the Music Photography Awards’ judging panel, include Jill Furmanovsky in 2024, Henry Diltz in 2023, and Eric Johnson in 2022. This year’s judging panel include Rankin, Nile Rodgers, Eric Burton, Joe Keery, Scarlet Page, Dimitri From Paris, Julia Cumming, and Simon Wheatley.
Abbey Road Music Photography Awards will be held at Abbey Road Studios in London on Oct. 2. The awards were founded in 2022 and span numerous categories, most of which are open for public entry. Last year, the Abbey Road Music Photography Awards attracted more than 22,000 entries from 30 different countries. This year’s awards will feature two new categories: Portrait and Festivals. Nominees for the remaining categories will be announced in September”.
It is well timed that Anton Corbijn is being honoured. As this DAZED feature from last month outlines, the esteemed and hugely respected photographer is being honoured with a new show at Fotografiska in Stockholm. With a career spanning over fifty years, this is someone that is going to be inspiring photographers coming through:
“The oldest son of a preacher, Anton Corbijn grew up in a religious island community in the Netherlands – far from the revolutionary cultural scenes where he’d later make his name as a photographer. “Across the border from the island was the ‘promised land,’” he says. “That’s where music was made. It was a different, freer life. I elevated the idea of a liberal lifestyle, as opposed to the lifestyle I had.”
For Corbijn, the camera was a route out of the place where he grew up, to get closer to the musicians and their liberated way of living. 50 years later, he’s worked with many of the most important artists of our age, from Björk to Joy Division, Nirvana to Depeche Mode, Kate Bush to Captain Beefheart and David Bowie. But in 2001 he briefly returned to his hometown, taking time to reflect on its place in his life and career to that date. The resulting photo series, titled Staged, sees the photographer himself dress up as dead music idols, including Elvis Presley, Kurt Cobain, and John Lennon.
“I combined the obsession I had with music [and] my parents’ obsession with life after death,” he explains. The intent was “playful” and never actually meant to deceive, but it helped shape a new mythology for the village nevertheless. “We had an exhibition in the town hall,” he adds, “and I heard people saying, ‘Gee, I didn’t realise Bob Marley was in our village!’”
There are some photographers who can show us our favourite celebrities (musicians, actors, artists, models, and so on) in a totally new light. Then, there are photographers who shape how we see those icons to begin with, who help write their foundational myths. Anton Corbijn is among the latter. Picture many of the famous faces he’s worked with over the last 50 years, and there’s a good chance you’ll see them as imagined through his lens: Nick Cave frowning in a raw black-and-white portrait, a moonlit Courtney Love in the shadowy Atlantic ocean, Patti Smith turning her own camera on the viewer.
“For five decades, Anton Corbijn’s visual language has found expressions through photography, feature films, graphic design, music videos, stage design, books, and more,” says Pauline Benthede, global vice president of exhibitions at Fotografiska, opening a career-spanning retrospective of Corbijn’s work at the Stockholm gallery to celebrate its 15th anniversary. “He is an artist who has changed popular culture as we know it.”
Since its opening in 2010, Stockholm’s Fotografiska has hosted exhibitions of Corbijn’s work on three occasions – the photographer himself says the gallery feels like a “second home” by now. On the flipside, Corbijn’s work has had a ripple effect on the culture of the city itself. Born and raised in Stockholm, the 32-year-old photographer Noah Agemo used to skip school to visit Fotografiska. “I’ve never really been good at school,” he tells Dazed in his studio. “So I got a year’s [Fotografiska] membership, and I just went there like every day... That’s when I saw Anton’s first exhibition.” He was particularly affected by a photo of the trip-hop musician, and early member of Massive Attack, Tricky, with a butterfly on his chest. “I was like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know you could do that with musicians,’” he says. “I was like, ‘Maybe I can do that as well”.
PHOTO CREDIT: ATC Comm Photo/Pexels
I hope that the Abbey Road Music Photography Awards not only honours and spotlights modern greats, but gets people discussing music photography. Those working for music magazines and independently. You can read more about Abbey Road’s Music Photography Awards here. An article that showcases some of his best shots. In an age where everyone is a photographer and we see countless images on Instagram and social media every day, is it harder to stand out as a photographer? I follow a few music photographers online, including Phoebe Fox, and I always marvel at their work! I use quite a few photographers for my features. Maybe with fewer prominent print magazines as there were decades ago, we discuss music photography less. However, I think that the Internet and music journalism online does allow plenty of opportunities and exposure. These amazing interviews where photographers’ work can be seen. I recently wrote about music photography and how I love long-form interviews where an artist is captured in a number of different settings. There are a lot of ambitious and passionate young photographers whose work deserves more attention. There is a lot to be discussed regarding music photography in the modern age. I would love to see more music photography award ceremonies.
IN THIS PHOTO: FLETCHER/PHOTO CREDIT: Phoebe Fox
More exhibitions that collect the work of modern photographers and established icons. I also think photos are more than individual snaps and moments. They shape our understanding of music and can inspire not only other photographers and fans. The artists themselves can be inspired. I shall end with some words from the Managing Director at Abbey Road, Sally Davies: "Music photography doesn’t just document culture — it plays a vital role in shaping it. With the Music Photography Awards we're proud to champion the image-makers capturing music’s most powerful moments and pushing the boundaries of visual creativity. And as the awards evolve into the cornerstone of our Music Photography Accelerator, it's exciting to not only spotlight talent, but continue to nurture it, helping it connect and thrive. It's about opening doors for the next generation of music photographers, and we can’t wait to see the incredible work they will submit this year”. Music photography and the print media that I grew up with is perhaps less common now. I think the artists rightly get a lot of love and exposure, but those who photograph them and take these amazing live shots do not get discussed in the same breath. It is hard to ignore just how important music photography. For artists, it can craft and build their identity and connect with their audiences. Live shots capture these very special moments. I think, with so many photos shared online, the form can be disposable and a little overwhelming. Music photography is about the quality and precision. These very special moments that we can cherish for years. It is crucial that music photographers are given more light and love and really put…
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