Chapter 3 · 1986–1990: Building a Visual World
MODE UNKNOWN · ANTON CORBIJN · CHAPTER 3 OF 6
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1986: A Question of Time
A Question of Time was Corbijn’s first Depeche Mode music video. It begins the concentrated sequence that the timeline follows through the late 1980s. His contribution was more than a recognisable photographic surface: performers, props and locations became elements in a visual world that could develop alongside the music.
1987: two defining collaborations
Strangelove, Never Let Me Down Again and Behind the Wheel extended the Depeche Mode sequence in 1987. In the same period, his photography for U2’s The Joshua Tree helped connect the group with landscape and a particular sense of scale. That work belongs to a collaboration that also included designer Steve Averill; recognising distinct contributions makes the achievement more precise.
1989: gathering the photographs
Famouz, his first book, appeared in 1989. It gathered earlier photographs into a publication that could be encountered beyond their original editorial setting. A book makes a different argument from a single reproduced image: selection and sequence encourage readers to recognise recurring subjects, moods and ways of looking. Its place here follows the publication date, while the companion books guide covers the wider publishing history.
1990: the wandering king
Enjoy the Silence presents Dave Gahan as a king carrying a deckchair through landscapes. Costume suggests authority; the portable chair makes that authority strange and human. The image remains legible without a complicated plot. Around this period, video, photography and sleeve design increasingly reinforced one another, although individual design credits still matter: the Violator rose should not simply be attributed to Corbijn alone. The next chapter follows this visual language into the theatre of the stage and the more unsettled imagery of the 1990s.