From reluctant beginnings to ICONIC photography

Corbell’s 40-year journey captures musicians, world leaders

Tony Corbell photographed sparse west Texas oilfields and colorful Beatles landmarks. He’s photographed musicians, fashion models and politicians — including scores of world leaders in one picture.

All this from a guy who says he wasn’t even interested in photography growing up — no camera, not even snapshots on family vacations.

The San Angelo, Texas, native says he wasn’t even that interested until after he got a call from his sister’s husband. He said the husband was a Navy photographer who was opening a studio.

“He said ‘I have a feeling you might make a good photographer,’” Corbell recalled. “And he says ‘why don’t you stop what you’re doing and come work with me.’”

By Cathy Spaulding • Photos submitted by tony Corbell

That was 1979.

“My first camera was the camera that I worked with,” he said. “Photography didn’t mean much to me for about the first year. Then I got it. Then I got the bug and I got pretty good pretty fast.”

He recalled that as soon as the bug bit him, “I knew that was supposed to be what I was doing — and it’s just been 40 years of great fun.”

Corbell has taken nearly 40 years of great photos, as well.

He said he seeks to take pictures that make an impact.

“It makes you look at it,” he said. “It draws you into it. If you’re turning pages of a magazine, you’re going to look at it.”

A photo with impact requires a watchful eye.

“I see lines, shapes, patterns, and textures better than most people,” Corbell said. “That’s what I tell my photo students, it’s all about line, pattern, shape, and texture.”

A photo he took of blue windows and doors against a sunshiny white wall in Greece shows what he means.

“It’s what I chose to put the frame around, to let the viewer see just this,” Corbell said. “They don’t need to see the broken door that was red. They don’t need to see this alley that leads to a broken car.”

Photos he took during several trips to Liverpool, England, have similar impact.

Why Liverpool?

“I’ve always been taken with the Beatles,” he said. “I’ve been collecting Beatles memorabilia since I was 10 years old.”

He said his “Penny Lane” is among his most requested prints. It is an actual spot in Liverpool where a red wall backs black wrought iron fence with the street name in gold.

“I composed it in my camera and in my head to look like a flag,” Corbell said.

One of his latest photos is a Fujifilm cameras ad that features produce framed for a pool shot. He said he had a challenge to find a pool table top that wasn’t well used, so he bought pool table green felt online.

“I stretched it out tight, taped it on the floor,” Corbell said. “I went to our little Walmart store and bought all these fruits and vegetables.”

He lit it with one big softbox — a photo lamp that diffuses and softens light.

Fruits and vegetables are arranged like a pool shot in this photo for Fujifilm.

“And I just shot straight down, and I didn’t have to get up on a ladder,” he said. “It was a pretty simple setup for shooting.”

Not all photos have been as easy.

In September 2000, Corbell shot a group photo of more than 175 world leaders assembled for the Millennium Summit of the United Nations. The General Assembly room was the only place big enough for the photo.

“All the desks were bolted to the floor, so we had to have this set of risers constructed off the ground,” he said. “The front row was suspended five feet off the ground. I’m 100 feet away, up five levels on a scaffold.”

Corbell also has gone around the world and conducted more than 700 workshops and seminars on the technical aspects of lighting and lighting control.

By 2015, Corbell moved to Muskogee. He married Mandy Lundy in 2017. They now operate a studio with photo artist Kimberly Smith.

Corbell recalled telling Mandy he was getting tired of being on an airplane so much. He said he was getting ready to retire when a position opened for Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame executive director.

“I was on the (OMHOF) board here for about a year when Amy Love, the former director stepped down,” Corbell said. “I read the description and I told one of the guys on the board ‘that description fits me.’

He said he still teaches workshops and does some occasional assignments.