Chapter 2 · 1979–1985: London, Post-Punk and Moving Images
MODE UNKNOWN · ANTON CORBIJN · CHAPTER 2 OF 6
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1979: entering a different musical world
The move to London in 1979 placed Corbijn close to the music that interested him. His photographs of Joy Division belong to this formative period. They are now inseparable from the band’s cultural memory, but they began as encounters with living musicians rather than illustrations of a legend already complete.
Joy Division and the life of a photograph
The subsequent death of Ian Curtis in 1980 changed the way images of the band would be received. Distance, obscured faces and austere surroundings acquired meanings that no photographer can fully control. A photograph’s history includes its later circulation: record collections, books and exhibitions can turn one moment into a defining image. The companion essay distinguishes those later readings from the circumstances of making the photographs.
Before the long Depeche Mode partnership
Corbijn first photographed Depeche Mode in 1981. That encounter should be distinguished from the sustained video and visual collaboration that developed from 1986. Keeping the two dates separate makes the later transformation easier to understand: an initial meeting and an enduring creative relationship are different milestones.
1983: photographs begin to move
His music-video practice began in 1983. Moving images introduced duration, performance and sequencing to the decisions already present in a still photograph. A gesture could unfold, an object could recur and a setting could become part of a small visual drama. The next chapter follows the point at which this expanding practice became central to the public identities of Depeche Mode and U2.