Dutch master lensman Corbijn toasts 60 with new expos

Famed for shooting superstars from Bjork to U2 in offbeat poses, Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn is himself taking centre stage with two exhibitions to mark his 60th birthday.
     
Corbijn has since the mid-70s forged a close relationship with bands including the Rolling Stones and electronic masters Depeche Mode, shooting and designing many of their album covers and directing their music videos.
      
His close involvement with U2 and Depeche Mode has earned him the epithet as those bands' "unseen member".
      
"To me, these exhibitions are a celebration. It's the culmination of four decades of my work," Corbijn, also a feature film director, told AFP in an interview.
      
From famous musicians like Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, Nick Cave or Miles Davis to artist Ai WeiWei and even a unique series of self-portraits, Corbijn has dug up a treasure trove that is now on show at two neighbouring museums in The Hague.
     
One entitled simply "1-2-3-4", at The Museum of Photography, offers portraits of some of the world's most famous rock stars -- many selected from contact sheets kept within Corbijn's personal archives and never shown before in public.
     
At the Gemeentemuseum next door, a "more serious" show called "Hollands Deep" traces Corbijn's work from a gangly teenager armed with a small camera at rock concerts in the early 1970s to the mature master of portrait photography.
      
For the first time, the "1-2-3-4" exhibition for instance shows pictures Corbijn took of the Rolling Stones prancing around wearing strange masks, all shot in his trademark monochrome style.
      
Another first includes a study of a youthful Mick Jagger, staring provocatively into the camera. There is also a...