30 Extraordinary Black and White Photos of Celebrities Taken by Anton Corbijn ~ Vintage Everyday

Born in the Netherlands in 1955, Anton Corbijn first started shooting music bands on his father’s camera at age 17. He was famous for his black and white photos. He photographed celebrities, such as Tom Waits, David Bowie, Miles Davis, Joy Division, Elvis Costello, Stephen Hawking, Kim Wilde, Björk, The Cramps, Clint Eastwood, Simple Minds, Herbert Grönemeyer, Prāta Vētra, Morrissey, and many others.

“I sometimes take pictures of celebrities,” he told TIME, “but generally I take pictures of artists that I'm interested in. Some of them are celebrities, but celebrity is not my focus.”

When he saw Herman Brood, a musician playing in Groningen’s café, Corbijn became interested in doing photography for the world of music and this was the year when he started photography. He took many photographs of Brood and as a result Corbijn became increasingly exposed, in a good way.

Following this, in 1974 he joined a one and half year photography course. After this, he worked for Gijabert Hanekroot as an assistant in Amsterdam. In 1976, he decided to work independently and later for a while became the head photographer for OOR, a Dutch magazine for pop music.

In 1979, he went to London and there he worked with New Musical Express (NME). He was in association with NME till 1985. Corbijn loved music and photography.

Corbijn’s style of photography gives a raw look than a glamorous one to his subjects. In the late 20th century, his style of producing black and white photos using grainy films became an important part of the visual culture and was copied greatly.