Seamus McGarvey

Irish cinematographer

Seamus McGarvey, ASC, BSC (born 29 June 1967) is a cinematographer from Armagh, Northern Ireland. He lives in Tuscany, Italy. He has received two Academy Award nominations for his cinematography, on Joe Wright's 2007 drama Atonement and his 2012 adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's novel Anna Karenina. In addition to the Oscar nominations, McGarvey won the British Society of Cinematographers (B. S. C.) award for Anna Karenina and for Nocturnal Animals, as well as a nomination for Atonement, and earned BAFTA noms for Atonement, Anna Karenina and Nocturnal Animals. He received A. S. C. nods for Atonement and Anna Karenina. Atonement earned him nominations for the British Independent Film Award, the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Online Film Critics Society, and he received the top honor from the Phoenix Film Critics Society. McGarvey has won three Evening Standard British Film Awards for Atonement, Anna Karenina and Stephen Daldry's The Hours and six Irish Film & Television Awards for Atonement, Anna Karenina, Sahara and We Need to Talk About Kevin, Nocturnal Animals and The Greatest Showman. In 2004, he was awarded the Royal Photographic Society's prestigious Lumiere Medal, with Jack Cardiff, Freddie Francis, Roger Deakins and Ridley Scott, for contributions to the art of cinematography.

McGarvey was born in Armagh, Northern Ireland. He began his career as a still photographer, before attending film school at the University of Westminster in London.

Upon graduating in 1988, he began shooting short films and documentaries, including ''Skin'', directed by Vincent O'Connell, which was nominated for a Royal Television Society Cinematography Award, and Atlantic, directed by Sam Taylor Wood. The latter project, an experimental, three screen projected film created in 1997, earned Taylor Wood a nomination for the 1998 Turner Prize and led to an ongoing collaboration between McGarvey and the director. His four dozen credits as director of photography include Joss Whedon's superhero film The Avengers; Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin; Oliver Stone's World Trade Center; Gary Winick's Charlotte's Web; John Hamburg's Along Came Polly; Stephen Frears' High Fidelity; Mike Nichols' Wit; Michael Apted's Enigma; Michael Winterbottom's Butterfly Kiss; and two projects marking actors' directorial debuts: Tim Roth's The War Zone and Alan Rickman's The Winter Guest. He served as cinematographer on the pilot for the TV series The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, directed by Anthony Minghella. He reunited with director Wright for his 2009 drama The Soloist, and filmmaker Sam Taylor Wood (now Sam Taylor Johnson) on her acclaimed 2008 drama Nowhere Boy, her 2011 short, James Bond Supports International Women's Dayand the Death Valley segment of the 2006 erotic drama Destricted. Following his work on Godzilla, he teamed with Taylor Johnson on her big screen adaptation, and Hollywood directorial debut, of the bestselling novel Fifty Shades of Grey. He has photographed Pan, The Accountant, Nocturnal Animals, Life, The Greatest Showman, Greta, and Bad Times at the El Royale, and The Nevers. His documentary work includes Lost Angels: Skid Row Is My Home, which followed his work on Wright's The Soloist, and filmed in the same locales; Harry Dean Stanton: Partly Fiction; Rolling Stones: Tip of the Tongue; and The Name of This Film Is Dogme95. Supplementing his work on features and telefilms, McGarvey has photographed and directed over 100 music videos for various artists, including Coldplay, Paul McCartney, Dusty Springfield, The Rolling Stones, U2, and Robbie Williams. In 2015, he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Dundee University and an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the University of Ulster. He is an Honorary Fellow of Edinburgh College of Art. He is featured in the book In Conversation with Cinematographers by David A. Ellis and in the book Ballinger, Alexander; New Cinematographers (2004)
McGarvey was meant to serve as cinematographer on Spider Man: No Way Home, but exited after contracting COVID 19 and was replaced with Mauro Fiore.

Year Title Director Notes 1994 Screen Two Nick Ward Episode "Look Me in the Eye" 2001 Wit Mike Nichols TV movie 2008 The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Anthony Minghella Episode #1.1. 2016 Black Mirror Joe Wright Episode "Nosedive" 2021 The Nevers Joss Whedon 2 episodes 2024 M Joe Wright 8 Episodes