Corbijn

I am a big fan of both Tom Waits and the well renowned photographer (and fellow Dutchman) Anton Corbijn, so when Tom Waits  announced  the release of their collaborative book I got all excited. I got even more excited when I found out that Corbijn would have a book signing in Amsterdam! Now, meeting one of your hero’s is always something special (and yes can be a disappointment as well). After almost two hours of waiting I finally entered the room where Anton was signing and I was already all psyched out :-). A kick ass band was playing Tom Wait’s music as I was holding my just acquired book. Slowly I got closer and closer to Anton and I started to take some photographs of him. At home I figured that letting Anton sign my Leica as well would be a great idea…When I was just a few feet away from the table where he was signing, a friendly woman was scribbling the names of the people in the queue to make sure the signing would take place without too much interruption. She also stated that it was not allowed to chit-chat with Anton. Understandable but it made me even more nervous! Should I still asking for two autographs…? When it was my turn I thanked him for his great work and asked if he could signed my Leica as well. ,, Sure” he said, ,,do you have a pencil?” Surely I had a pencil! When I nervously searched for the pencil which I bought for this very reason, I stuttered something like:,, I am quite nervous you know, sorry!”. He gave a reassuring ‘oh well that okay!”. Although Corbijn is a very gentle and humble man, I was totally star struck! I was even trembling, quite embarrassing really. But most of all, it had been a great experience. Later I found that the gallery where Corbijn had the book signing, had taken some photographs of me as well 🙂