Skip to content
News

Tom Waits Mugs Like a ‘Handsome Gravedigger’ in Limited-Edition Photo Book

tom waits, anton corbijn, photo book

Tom Waits’ weathered visage will grace the many, many pages of a collaborative decades-spanning photography book from famed photographer-slash-director Anton Corbijn this spring. The pop-visionaries have teamed up for Waits/Corbijn ’77-’11, a limited-edition art book collecting more than 200 portraits of Waits taken by Corbijn, beginning with black-and-white photos snapped in Holland back in 1977.

“It’s rare to take photographs of someone over a 30-plus-year period,” Corbijn said in a statement. “Our work together developed totally organically and that’s a beauty in itself. We are very serious about our work but when it comes to working together, we’re like children resisting maturity. It’s liberating and a much needed legal drug.”

Waits added, “Anton picks up a small black box, points it at you and all the leaves fall from the trees.” The recent Simpsons guest star continued, “The shadows now are long and scary, the house looks completely abandoned and I look like a handsome… undertaker. I love working with Anton, he’s someone with a real point of view. Believe me, I won’t go jumping off rocks wearing only a Dracula cape for just anyone.”

The upcoming release also features forewords by filmmaker Jim Jarmusch and “Dean of American Rock Critics” Robert Christgau, as well as a 50-plus-page collection of Waits’ own musings and photography, titled “Curiosities.” Waits/Corbijn will be limited to 6,600 copies and is set to hit shelves on May 8, courtesy German publisher Schirmer-Mosel. Pre-orders for the $199 cloth-bound book are now available.