Anton Corbijn to publish three decades’ worth of Tom Waits photos

Photographer Anton Corbijn has over his career shot a number of iconic images: U2 in the California desert for “The Joshua Tree,” William Burroughs standing in front of a shooting target, Joy Division posing in a subway tunnel.

Few, however, have been as fruitful and spirited as his work over the decades with singer and songwriter Tom Waits. The two have collaborated since 1977, and the product of that artistic relationship has been documented in the forthcoming book “Waits/Corbijn 77-11.” The book is limited to 6,600 copies, and will be issued on May 8. The price: $199.

As per the titled, “Waits/Corbijn” comprises images stretching through their 2011 shoot for Waits’ album “Bad as Me.” The earliest of these sessions occurred during Waits’ mid-career blossoming, and that initial work sparked an ongoing artistic relationship; over the years, Corbijn has documented Waits as he released Heart Attack & Vine,” “Rain Dogs,” “Frank’s Wild Years,” “Mule Variations” and a dozen-odd others.

The book also publishes for the first time a series of images that Waits shot at Corbijn’s urging, described in the publisher’s announcement as being “of the vivid quotidian, stretching down through the years.” As well, the cloth-bound book features new writing by critic Robert Christgau and director Jim Jarmusch.

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