On location in Amsterdam with Anton Corbijn and Steve McQueen
Excerpts and out-takes from the pages of Esquire
This issue’s cover star, the Turner Prize-winning artist and Oscar-winning film-maker Sir Steve McQueen, was born and raised in London but has lived in Amsterdam for the best part of two decades. That’s where he was at the beginning of August, editing the five forthcoming films he has made for the BBC under the title Small Axe.
Happily, given the necessary restrictions on gathering and travelling occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic, and the difficulties they cause magazines like ours when we are trying to organise photo shoots overseas, at Esquire we know a Dutch photographer of some repute who was ready and willing to take on the commission.
Anton Corbijn is another multi-disciplinarian — he takes stills, makes pop videos and, like Sir Steve, he is an acclaimed director of feature films: Control, The American, Life. So, working with another veteran Esquire contributor, the fashion director James Sleaford, McQueen and Corbijn arranged to meet at a photographic studio in central Amsterdam, before later taking a stroll outdoors, so that Corbijn could capture the striking pictures on these pages, working in his trademark high contrast black and white.
It may be that our ability, taken for granted for years, to go anywhere and meet anyone under whatever circumstances we choose, will remain no more than a misty memory for some time. If every leap over that particular hurdle is as elegant as this one, we’ll be lucky indeed.
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