Stephen Goldblatt, A.S.C., B.S.C. (born 29 April 1945) is a South African-born British retired cinematographer.
Early life Goldblatt was born on 29 April 1945 in Johannesburg, South Africa, to a Jewish family. When he was seven years old, he and his family moved to London, where at the age of 18 he started working as a photojournalist for the London Sunday Times.
Goldblatt attended Guildford School of Art for photography, but later discovered his interest in film while working on a special assignment for Lion Films at Shepperton Studios. It was this interest that motivated him to attend London's Royal College of Art Film School.
Career Upon graduation, he went to work shooting documentaries and animation, much of it in 16mm. Among his assignments were two Disappearing World episodes for Granada TV.
Goldblatt began his career as a cameraman for documentaries and commercials. From 1972-75, he worked shooting TV commercials for directors such as Hugh Hudson, Alan Parker, Ridley Scott, and Brian Gibson. Goldblatt made the transition to feature films in 1979, when he shot Breaking Glass for Gibson, then in the following decade he worked with directors Peter Hyams on Outland (1981), Tony Scott on The Hunger (1983), Francis Coppola on The Cotton Club (1984), and Richard Donner on Lethal Weapon (1987) and Lethal Weapon 2 (1989).
In the 1990s, Goldblatt joined the Batman series with director Joel Schumacher and shot Batman Forever (1995) and Batman and Robin (1997). In the late 1990s, during a "film sabbatical" and after many years of only taking snapshots, Goldblatt built a darkroom and began to photograph his life and surroundings again. After his sabbatical Goldblatt worked with directors such as Mike Nichols on Angels in America (2003), Closer (2004) and Charlie Wilson's War (2007), Chris Columbus on Rent (2005) and Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), Nora Ephron on Julie & Julia (2009), and most recently Tate Taylor on The Help (2011) and Get On Up (2014).
Stephen Goldblatt now lives in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico and has three grown children. When he is at home, Goldblatt enjoys tending to his pond and koi fish, gardening, playing his guitar, cooking, reading every day, and mastering the art of husbanding with his wife Deborah.
Photography One of Stephen Goldblatt's most significant photo shoots was of the British band The Beatles in 1968, who at the time had just finished recording what came to be known as The White Album. The Beatles wanted some fresh publicity photos shot by an unknown photographer, with whom they planned to travel all over London to take random photos. One of Goldblatt's shots became a two-page spread in Life magazine, and a few others were used as album art on Beatles compilations.
In 2019, more than 2,000 unpublished photographs were found in an external storage unit at the Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin. He had taken them as a still photographer in Nigeria in 1970 during the production of Things Fall Apart (1971/1974). An extensive research, digitisation and presentation project has since been able to generate a great deal of knowledge about the pre-Nollywood era of Nigerian film on this basis. In his essay ‘Why ‘Things Fall Apart’ is still a very relevant Black film till this day’, Mallam Mudi Yahaya describes the background.
Filmography Film Year Title Director 1969 Forum Mireille Dansereau 1972 Pass of Arms Peter Elford 1980 Breaking Glass Brian Gibson 1981 Outland Peter Hyams 1982 The Return of the Soldier Alan Bridges 1983 The Hunger Tony Scott 1984 The Cotton Club Francis Ford Coppola 1985 Young Sherlock Holmes Barry Levinson 1987 Lethal Weapon Richard Donner 1988 Everybody's All-American Taylor Hackford 1989 Lethal Weapon 2 Richard Donner 1990 Joe Versus the Volcano John Patrick Shanley1991 For the Boys Mark Rydell The Prince of Tides Barbra Streisand 1992 Consenting Adults Alan J. Pakula 1993 The Pelican Brief 1995 Batman Forever Joel Schumacher 1996 Striptease Andrew Bergman 1997 Batman & Robin Joel Schumacher 1999 The Deep End of the Ocean Ulu Grosbard 2004 Closer Mike Nichols 2005 Rent Chris Columbus 2007 Charlie Wilson's War Mike Nichols 2009 Julie & Julia Nora Ephron 2010 Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief Chris Columbus 2011 The HelpTate Taylor 2014 Get On Up 2015 The Intern Nancy Meyers 2017 Our Souls at Night Ritesh Batra 2020 Ava Tate Taylor Wild Mountain Thyme John Patrick Shanley 2023 Red, White & Royal Blue Matthew Lopez
Television Miniseries Year Title Director 1971-1972 The Flight of the Arctic 7 2003 Angels in America Mike Nichols
TV movies Year Title Director Note 2001 Conspiracy Frank Pierson 2002 Path to War John Frankenheimer With Nancy Schreiber
Awards and nominations Year Award Category Title Result 1991Academy AwardsBest Cinematography The Prince of Tides 1995 Batman Forever 1991American Society of CinematographersOutstanding Cinematography The Prince of Tides 1995 Batman Forever 2003 Outstanding Cinematography for Limited Series Angels in America 2023Lifetime Achievement Award 2001Primetime Emmy AwardsOutstanding Cinematographyfor a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie Conspiracy 2002 Path to War 2003 Angels in America 2007 Hollywood Film AwardsCinematography of the Year CamerimageLifetime Achievement Award 2014 Golden Frog Get on Up
References
External links