Anton Corbijn: Watch and Listen
The collection · Timeline · Video directory · Sources
MODE UNKNOWN · ANTON CORBIJN · Chapter 17 of 20
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Beginnings
Depeche Mode
Photography & collaborators
Cinema & legacy
Explore & reference
Begin with the artist speaking, then move to the work and the voices of collaborators. This route combines museum interviews, official music-video sources, a distributor’s trailer and a design podcast. The videos remain with their original hosts; availability and embedding can vary by territory and browser settings.
Start here: the photographer explains his approach
The interview was recorded by Kasper Bech Dyg at Brandts in Denmark in March 2019. (Louisiana Museum of Modern Art) It introduces a vocabulary of limitation, concentration and imperfection that readers can test against the works elsewhere in the collection.
Advice to the Young
The companion Louisiana film considers access, drive and the relationship among photographer, subject and a new idea. (Louisiana Museum of Modern Art) Treat it as a concise statement of priorities rather than a promise that a particular technique will produce a successful career.
A Depeche Mode viewing route
Begin with A Question of Time; move through Strangelove and Enjoy the Silence; compare Walking in My Shoes with It’s No Good; then continue to Suffer Well, Cover Me and Ghosts Again. The relevant era chapters contain embedded official-archive videos, and the directory links the individual credits and available players.
This sequence is intended to reveal changes of register. Watch for differences between theatricality, solitude, humour and physical intensity. A route organised this way is more revealing than one that treats every film as another example of darkness.
Nirvana: the making of Heart-Shaped Box
Corbijn’s account is valuable for considering how a director responds to a musician’s visual ideas. () Return to the collaboration chapter after listening, particularly its distinction between concept and realisation.
The Depeche Mode book, introduced by its maker
TASCHEN hosts Corbijn presenting the illustrated history. (TASCHEN) This is a useful bridge between video viewing and the photographic archive because it brings sketches, sleeves and portraits into the same discussion.
Richard Smith and the finished sleeve
Andrew Dineley’s Art on Your Sleeve interview with Richard Smith offers a collaborator’s perspective on the design work. (Andrew Dineley / Soft Octopus) It is especially relevant after the record-sleeves chapter, which considers how a painted idea becomes a flexible set of printed objects.
Squaring the Circle
The distributor’s page supplies the trailer and film information. (Dogwoof) The documentary expands the viewing route from Corbijn’s own album work to his account of another major design practice.
Viewing without confusing the object
An official music video, a trailer, a museum interview and a fan-uploaded extract are different sources. The collection favours the first three and identifies the host. A trailer is an introduction to a film, not a substitute for having seen it; an interview is a maker’s account, not an independent adjudication of every historical claim.
The Depeche Mode directory retains alternate versions as separate entries where the official archive does so. This is particularly important for edited broadcasts and later remakes. Always check the version before assuming that two viewers are discussing precisely the same film.