Cinematographer / DP / Director

Robbie Ryan (ISC, BSC)

London / Dublin, Ireland / UK

Irish cinematographer, ISC and BSC, whose work spans more than 120 features, shorts, commercials and music videos. A graduate of DÚN laoghaire institute of art, design and technology (IADT); he decided at fourteen to pursue cinematography, and has been working since around 1990. He also directs music videos. Twice oscar-nominated for best cinematography, the favourite (2018) and Poor Things (2023), with a BAFTA nomination for The Favourite, the Camerimage Audience Award for it, and the Camerimage Bronze Frog for Wuthering Heights (2011). Poor Things opened Camerimage 2023. He is defined by auteur relationships and by range across them: Andrea Arnold, his first major collaborator, Wasp, Red Road, Fish Tank, Wuthering Heights, American Honey, shot with raw handheld urgency; Ken Loach, The Angels’ Share, Jimmy’s Hall, I, Daniel Blake, Sorry We Missed You, The Old Oak, on fixed tripod and long lens; Yorgos Lanthimos, whom he met in 2015 and for whom he is now Primary Cinematographer (The Favourite, Poor Things, Bugonia), working in deliberate rule-breaking; and Noah Baumbach, The Meyerowitz Stories, Marriage Story, classically composed and actor-centred. Also Stephen Frears (Philomena), Sally Potter, Mike Mills (C’mon C’mon), John Maclean (Slow West) and Andrew Dominik. A celluloid cinematographer: Poor things was shot on Kodak 35mm, black and white, colour negative and ektachrome reversal, at Lanthimos’s wish. On the collaboration: “a cinematography masterclass all the time… I’m learning from him constantly. He knows how to push stocks and bend the rules of photography.” On the look: “it’s not meant to be a realistic look.”