Anton Corbijn and Depeche Mode: The Later Years, 2010–2024
The collection · Timeline · Video directory · Sources
MODE UNKNOWN · ANTON CORBIJN · COMPANION GUIDE
Browse all chapters · chronological order
The later work deserves attention on its own terms. It is tempting to treat every new image as a reminder of a supposedly definitive earlier era. That approach can miss how a longstanding partnership responds to different bodies, different circumstances and an audience carrying decades of memory.
Different credits within a familiar world
The official archive credits Corbijn on the live Should Be Higher video and on Where’s the Revolution and Cover Me. (Depeche Mode official archives) (Depeche Mode official archives) (Depeche Mode official archives) It credits Tim Saccenti on Heaven. (Depeche Mode official archives) This is a useful example of why a band’s overall visual identity and a specific director credit need to be kept separate.
A familiar atmosphere does not prove common authorship. Lighting, styling, the musicians themselves and an established audience expectation can connect images made by different people. A serious collection makes those relationships visible without collapsing them into one name.
Cover Me: a character out of place
In Cover Me, the astronaut figure places an immediately recognisable costume within an unfamiliar emotional situation. Read the costume as a device that changes our sense of scale and belonging. The person is protected by equipment yet appears separated from ordinary contact. The distance between role and environment gives the image its tension. Corbijn’s credit is confirmed by the official archive. (Depeche Mode official archives)
Ghosts Again and Memento Mori
Ghosts Again was released in 2023 and directed by Corbijn. (Depeche Mode official archives) Its chess-playing figures invite a reading through mortality, companionship and the passing of time. The visual austerity does not make the relationship between the two performers empty. On the contrary, a sparse arrangement can make a shared look or gesture particularly consequential.
The Memento Mori photographs are separately represented in Corbijn’s agency portfolio. (2b Management) Studying a campaign across photographs and film is useful here. A still establishes an arrangement to contemplate; moving images introduce duration and change. Neither needs to exhaust the meaning of the album title for the relationship to be powerful.
Creative direction is a distinct contribution
Wagging Tongue was directed by the Sacred Egg, with creative direction from Corbijn. (Pitchfork) That credit describes a collaboration, not a minor technicality. Creative direction can establish an approach or a visual framework, while directing the film involves a different set of responsibilities. The two contributions should both remain visible.
The official archive also credits Corbijn on My Favourite Stranger and Rich Hall on People Are Good. (Depeche Mode official archives) (Depeche Mode official archives) These neighbouring releases make the point clearly: an album campaign can be coherent and collaborative at the same time.
Before We Drown
The January 2024 Before We Drown video, directed by Corbijn, follows an overcoated figure entering a turbulent sea. (Pitchfork) Its physical situation gives the title an immediate visual pressure. As a reading, the sea can be approached as a scale against which an individual’s control becomes uncertain. That interpretation should remain open rather than being presented as Corbijn’s declared intention.
The later films reward attention to duration. What changes when an image is allowed to persist? What happens when the body is small against a setting? The questions link this period to earlier work, but the accumulated history of the performers gives them a different emotional weight.
A continuing body of work
The right endpoint for this chapter is a documented work, not a claim that the career has concluded. The 2024 film establishes a verified stopping point for this particular video discussion. The exhibitions and books chapter carries the account into 2025–2026. Keeping those dates explicit prevents an archive from confusing a chapter boundary with the end of an artist’s activity.