Stuart Dryburgh

Stuart Dryburgh ( born March 30, 1952 in London, United Kingdom ) is a British cinematographer who works primarily in New Zealand and the USA. For his camera in The Piano in 1994 he was nominated for an Oscar.

Life and work

Growing up and education in New Zealand

Stuart Dryburgh was born in London but grew up in Wellington, New Zealand, on. First, he followed his father professionally and studied architecture. The thematically comparatively open studies enabled him by its own account in addition to insights into sociology and media studies working with video recordings.

After graduating, he worked, his predominant interest for filmmaking following in New Zealand film productions, first as a ' gofer ', later. Than technicians and lighting Within the fledgling New Zealand film scene this work came for him an education equal to, where he also learned later directors such as Alison Maclean and Jane Campion know. With recordings of commercials and pop videos, he had his first success as a cameraman and was able to make a name. His work at the award- winning short film Kitchen Sink from Maclean then led to a first collaboration with Campion, in the meantime some of his own film projects had been able to finish.

The work with Jane Campion

As a cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh by Jane Campion worked in the period 1990 to 1996 in three films. The first collaboration between the two took place on the film An Angel at My Table on the New Zealand writer Janet Frame. Three years later, the New Zealand film success followed The Piano with Holly Hunter and Harvey Keitel. In 1996, their last collaboration to date came out, the film Portrait of a Lady with Nicole Kidman and John Malkovich. Dryburgh said about Campion: "Working with Jane is a unique privilege for a cameraman, for she is a director who is thinking very carefully about the visual aspects of the film. "

For all three films Campion and Dryburgh have jointly prepared a their own overall visual design. Immerse the images in colder or warmer tones, depending on the location or situation. The film 'The Piano ' plays the part of a beach and in a New Zealand rainforest landscape. The beach is continuously bathed in soft pastel shades, sea and sky seem to blur into one another. The jungle on the other hand acts using blue filters and cold light in the photographs as an oppressive underwater world.

While Dryburgh and Campion in The Piano advantage of the color cues to characterize different places in the film, use it in Portrait of a Lady, this staining to define the time in which the film takes place in each case. So predominate at the beginning of the film, in the English summer, optimistic yellows and greens, the soft throughout the film a dark dark blue mood when the protagonist finds himself trapped in a desolate marriage. Dryburgh says: "I do not believe that this approach both in theory and in practice is particularly mysterious or sophisticated, but it 's almost outrageously simple - but it works. "

Additional camera work

Since the mid- nineties Dryburgh works except for New Zealand even with U.S. productions. He was particularly pleased about the opportunity in 1996 with John Sayles, one of his idols, to be working at the movie Lone Star. In addition, Dryburgh draws in larger productions such as Analyze This, The bride who dares not responsible or recipe to fall in love for the camera. Even domestic productions in New Zealand as My Father's Den are still on his agenda.

Dryburgh also appreciates the work of advertising movies, which, he says, offer him more freedom in choosing his orders for feature films and allow the testing of new techniques.

Dryburghs style

Dryburgh himself says of his camera work, that he was not aware of having developed a particular handwriting in it. Instead, he was looking to find an appropriate visual language for each film, also depending on how pronounced are the visual ideas of the director or the director. In addition, he finds the work of other stakeholders such as the outfitter is sometimes so good, " that it just still need to photograph. "

In a review of the film scholar Thomas Koebner the film The Piano sounds a little more enthusiastic: " Dryburgh succeed images of dreamlike conciseness that oscillate between real play and symbolic significance. "

Nominations and awards

The film Kitchen Sink by Alison Maclean, at the Dryburgh was the camera man was in 1989 nominated for a Golden Palm.

His camera work for The Piano in 1994 was honored with an Oscar nomination. In addition to several other nominations he received an award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the Australian Film Institute and a Polish Film Festival for this film.

Among other things, his work in An Angel at My Table, and was My Father's Den with prices considered.

Text references

Filmography (selection)

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