[eltdf_dropcaps type=”normal” color=”” background_color=””]R[/eltdf_dropcaps]enowned cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt will offer a Master Class today at noon, at Juárez Theater. Goldblatt was born on April 29, 1945 in Johannesburg, South Africa. His family moved him to London when he was seven years old and it was here where, at age 18, he started working as a photojournalist for the London Sunday Times. By the time he was twenty, he was already capturing images that appeared on many British and European newspapers and magazines.
Goldblatt’s photographs ranged from the somber portrayal of Churchill’s funeral and lively vignettes of London life to unforgettable centerfolds on various rock stars. While studying photography at the Guilford School of Art, he discovered, while on a special assignment for Lions Films at Shepperton Studios, that his interest was in film, which motivated him to attend the London College of Art Film School.
One of his greatest experiences was a photo shoot with The Beatles, just after they had finished what would be known as The White Album. Goldblatt took The Beatles all over London to shoot photographs, which included taking photos with random Londoners and several costume changes. One of the shots became a two-page spread for Life Magazine and a few others as album art on Beatles compilations.
In the 1970’s, he began his film career for documentaries and commercials for directors such as Hugh Hudson, Alan Parker, Ridley Scott and Brian Gibson. He made the transition to feature films in the mid-1980s, quickly acquiring work with Tony Scott on The Hunger (1983), Francis Ford Coppola on The Cotton Club (1984), and Richard Donner on Lethal Weapon (1987) and Lethal Weapon 2 (1989).
He’s been nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, for Barbra Streisand’s 1991 drama The Prince of Tides and for Joel Schumacher’s 1995 entryBatman Forever. He’s also been nominated for three Emmys for his work on three HBO miniseries. Conspiracy (2001), a film about the soldiers involved in the “Final Solution” during WWII, starring Kenneth Branagh and Stanley Tucci, Path to War (2002) about the Vietnam War as seen through the eyes of President Lyndon B. Johnson (played by Michael Gambon), and one of the most celebrated HBO miniseries, Angels in America (2003), based on Tony Kushner’s play of the same name, starring Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Jeffrey Wright, Mary-Louise Parker and Patrick Wilson. Other notable works include Closer (2004), his second collaboration with Mike Nichols and the box-office hit The Help (2011), based on the best-selling novel of the same name.