James Dean, Life And Leaving Photography Behind - Exclusive Interview With Anton Corbijn

On Applying His Photography Experience On The Film

WhatCulture: What I really liked about Life was how it wasn't just a James Dean movie; it was also about photography and the idea of how a photo is almost a skewed view on reality. You've got these iconic images of Dean and then you've also got him really troubled off camera. With that in mind, how much of your own experience as a photographer did you put into the movie? Anton Corbijn: Well of course as a photographer it was one of the reasons I was interested in film, because of the perspective of the photographer, so, yeah, some of my own feelings about it or experience came through. The moment, for instance, when they take the famous shot in Times Square. People think "Oh, that must be a very big moment for the photographer because it became one of the most iconic images of the last century", but as a photographer you have no idea at that moment. Especially when someone passes - when they die soon afterwards these pictures are perceived in a different light and get a life of their own that as a photographer you don't have a lot to do with any more. WC: Yeah, that scene - it feels very big because we all know that photo that he's taking is very important, but in the film itself it just kinda happens. AC: Yeah, exactly. When I looked at the complex sheet there were only six pictures or so that he took . Nowadays people take a hundred pictures because they shoot digital. on film and it was in the rain, it was like snapshots. He was documentary photographer, Dennis Stock, and that's his strength.