FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 17, 2025
Contact: kelly@epitaph.com

Tom Waits and Anton Corbijn Re-Issue Award-Winning
Photo Book 'WAITS/CORBIJN '77-'11'

New Edition Features Smaller 8.1 x 11.4 Format
Pre-Order HERE

Originally released in 2013, WAITS/CORBIJN ‘77-’11 is now back in print and will be re-issued in a smaller 8.1 x 11.4 inch format. This stunning, award-winning visual odyssey encapsulates the essence of Tom Waits’ enigmatic persona and Anton Corbijn's distinctive photographic style. The book is scheduled for a December 9 release in US and an October 21 release date in Europe. Pre-order it HERE.

Spanning over three decades, this extraordinary book showcases the enduring collaboration between a legendary musician and a renowned Dutch photographer—a creative symbiosis that has produced some of the most memorable images in rock and roll history. In those first black and white photographs of Tom Waits taken by a young Anton Corbijn in Holland in 1977 are the seeds of these two intertwined careers, feeding off each other.

Structured chronologically, it traces Waits’ evolution as an artist alongside Corbijn’s development as a photographer whose starkly evocative images capture Waits in a multitude of settings, from gritty urban landscapes to intimate studio sessions. Waits’ own photography, collected here for the first time under the title “Curiosities,” gives a visual handle to the artistic intelligence millions of fans know only through his music.

Through Corbijn’s lens, Waits emerges not just as a musician but as a multifaceted character, embodying the spirit of the troubadour, the poet, and the raconteur. Waits’ vibrant persona helped Corbijn define his narrative, cinematic style of still photography: images that felt as if you were coming in on the middle of some unfolding drama. Corbijn complimented Waits’ theatrical side in a way that synced beautifully with the experimental music he was making with his wife, Kathleen Brennan.

“Anton picks up a small black box, points it at you and all the leaves fall from the trees,” Waits explained. “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 book features over 200 pages of Waits’ portraits taken by Corbijn and over 50 pages of the first published collection of musings and photographs taken by Waits himself. Waits’ own photography, collected here for the first time under the title “Curiosities,” gives a visual handle to the artistic intelligence millions of fans know only through his music.

These 226 images record one of the longest and most fruitful collaborations in the careers of both artists. “It’s rare,” Corbijn says, “to take photographs of someone over a 30+ year period. Our work together developed totally organically and that’s a beauty within 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.”

The book has introductions written by film director Jim Jarmusch and the longtime music critic Robert Christgau. As Jim Jarmusch comments in the introduction: “A collection of images of Tom Waits seen through the eyes of Anton Corbijn is something special, some kind of vortex, an axis of evil geniuses.” Tom Waits fans, photography enthusiasts, and anyone seeking insight into the joy of collaboration will find much to discover in this inspiring partnership between two artistic visionaries and friends.

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Waits/Corbijn ’77-‘11
Photographs by Anton Corbijn
Curiosities by Tom Waits
Texts by Jim Jarmusch and Robert Christgau  
Limited edition of 6.600 w/slipcase
272 pages, 226 color and duotone plates

20.5 x 29 cm, 8.1 x 11.4 in
ISBN 978-3-7913-9325-4
 

‘Waits/Corbijn ’77-‘11’ is now available for pre-order:
www.tomwaitsstore.com