I’ve always thought photography was a bit of an adventure, so to come home with the film, develop it, then look at the results has more of a sense of excitement. – Anton Corbijn
I only make storyboards for action scenes. Once you make a storyboard, you don’t film; it can be a stiff move. – Anton Corbijn
There are some elements of digital photography that I don’t really like, such as the fact that you see the results immediately. – Anton Corbijn
I wanted to make a film as an artist, and it’s going to have to find an audience, you know. I don’t know how big the audience will be. – Anton Corbijn
I don’t want to knock photography, and I don’t feel that film is up there but photography isn’t. I think they’re next to each other really, you know. There’s an incredible strength to a still picture. Or there can be an incredible strength to a still picture that can outlive you. That can outlive a film. – Anton Corbijn
For many years I wanted to do a film, but I never had the courage to clear my desk and say, ‘OK I’ll take a year off and do a film.’ – Anton Corbijn
I don’t want to continue to do what I did when I was 20. I would like to continue to develop myself and not continue to hang around with bands. – Anton Corbijn
Once you make decisions, you can’t go back, but in photography, that process can continue. With film, you have to eliminate all the possibilities and make the one possibility work the best for you, so you have to become very creative with the direction you’ve chosen. – Anton Corbijn
With photography, you are lucky if you get people to look at your pictures at some point. There’s no formal way to show them. – Anton Corbijn
I didn’t really know how to make a film when I made ‘Control’. I had to create my own language, just as I did when I started taking photographs. I never studied either one. – Anton Corbijn
I never really enjoyed getting a portfolio together then sending it out; whereas, putting up the website is quite an enjoyable experience. The net’s just a much faster and more modern way to distribute things, and you have to embrace it. – Anton Corbijn
You always want to come back with an image that’s interesting visually, and you hope to get something from the person you photograph that’s different than other images you know of these people. – Anton Corbijn
Mandela is just the eternal man. You want that man to be around forever. It’s the closest thing we have to God, I think. He’s the father of mankind, almost. – Anton Corbijn
‘Control’ had to do with my own life a lot, and that’s why that seemed to be a film I could be the director of, because I had an emotional attachment to the whole story. And because of that experience, I feel that I can try other films. I didn’t set out to become a director. – Anton Corbijn
There’s only one music video that had an emotional impact on me, and that’s ‘Hurt’ by Johnny Cash. That’s exceptional. There is no music video I can think of apart from that one that really reaches you inside. – Anton Corbijn
I wanted to do a film for a while, but I never found a script that I felt I was going to be the right person for; because if you’ve never made a film, you’re not taught how to make a film, and you feel like you lack skills. – Anton Corbijn
A lot of scripts that I was given I didn’t feel were right for me, because I didn’t feel anything for them – I didn’t feel like I was going to change in life and start directing. – Anton Corbijn
I had no agent, and I was getting approached by so many people that I tried to escape for a while because I couldn’t believe that world. Photography is not an industry, and suddenly an industry came to me, so I sort of had to accept it in the end and get an agent. – Anton Corbijn
I don’t have lights, I don’t have assistants, I just go and meet somebody and take a photograph. That’s really basic, and that’s how I used to work when I was 17 or 18 in Holland. – Anton Corbijn
I’m not famous; I am simply very well-known to certain people. Famous is something different. – Anton Corbijn
In 1979, I moved to England and photographed Joy Division and Bowie and Beefheart. At that time I got images that I felt had that special, well – power is a big word to say – more like intimacy and ambition that outlasted the photo shoot. I felt that they would have a longer life. – Anton Corbijn
I’m not totally blind to the fact that I like people to see my work, but if it’s not something I would enjoy seeing in a magazine, then I think I shouldn’t be making it. I think that I don’t represent only myself, I represent more people; I mean, if I like it, then I think more people will like it because I think I’m quite a normal guy. – Anton Corbijn
When I was younger, I’d buy a vinyl album, take it home and live with it, and I think that attachment’s largely gone for the file-sharing generation. – Anton Corbijn