ANTON CORBIJN. Favourite Darkness
Corbijn’s artistic career is inextricably linked to music. His early photographs, inspired by the sounds of his youth, initially found expression in black-and-white portraits of musicians and later in iconic music videos. However, over the years, his focus shifted. Today, he is increasingly drawn to painting—not just as a subject but as a medium of freedom. Painters, Corbijn believes, are different from musicians: they are not bound to their own image, nor do they have to sell themselves. Their concern is the work itself, not their persona. This distance from the public fascinates him—just as does the creative moment that unfolds in the studio when a painting is still unfinished, still in the making.
The exhibition Favourite Darkness takes up this idea, weaving a narrative that traces Corbijn’s evolution as a photographer. Curator Lisa Ortner-Kreil not only highlights his deep connection to music but also his interest in the mechanisms of the image itself. One room is dedicated exclusively to women—actresses and musicians whom he portrays with a sensitivity that stands apart from the often male-dominated aesthetics of rock photography. Corbijn’s gaze upon his subjects is introspective, often melancholic. His photographs are imbued with a darkness that is not merely visual but carries an existential dimension.
The exhibition’s title, Favourite Darkness, is taken from a song by Depeche Mode and seems like a poetic summary of Corbijn’s visual language. It is a darkness that does not exhaust itself in black-and-white contrasts but rather describes an inner state—the loneliness of creative individuals, the moment of self-reflection, the tension between public projection and private reality.
With this exhibition at the Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien, Corbijn opens his archive, presenting not only his photographs but also his work as a director. This makes an artistic body of work tangible, one that extends far beyond the iconography of pop culture. Favourite Darkness is not an homage to fame but an exploration of the images that endure—and the question of what they evoke in us.
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