“The art of cinematography is to concentrate the audience’s minds and create a reality for the audience to inhabit. The aesthetic ensures the viewer is a participant observer. The act of viewing remains active and politically engaged.”
British cinematographer Barry Ackroyd is celebrated as a pioneer of the documentary realist style of filmmaking, working with a naturalistic, handheld approach to cinematography. This has characterized the look of films he has worked on, such as United 93 (2006), The Hurt Locker (2008), and a dozen Ken Loach films.
Born in 1954, in Oldham, in the industrial North of England, Ackroyd began his journey at the Rochdale School of Art, where he undertook a multidisciplinary art foundation. Sculpture became a major influence, molding his way of seeing, and providing a kinetic understanding that he applied to animated and experimental films. He then completed a degree in film at Portsmouth Fine Arts College, where realism and the French New Wave heavily influenced the course. In 1976, Ackroyd moved to London, and after struggling to join the Film Union ACCT, found freelance work with the BBC, working on documentaries, and taking jobs to troubled regions where no one else wanted to work.
Ackroyd spent the next decade shooting documentaries, covering a variety of themes and visiting over 50 countries. In 1987, he filmed his first narrative feature; Henry Martin’s Big George is Dead, for Channel 4 Television. Shortly after, he received a surprise phone call from Ken Loach, which led to the 1991 award-winning film, Riff-Raff, and a subsequent 20-year collaboration. This resulted in a dozen films, including Raining Stones (1993), Ladybird Ladybird (1994), Land and Freedom (1995), Carla’s Song (1996), My Name is Joe (1998), Bread And Roses (2000), The Navigators (2001), Sweet Sixteen (2002), Ae Fond Kiss (2004), The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006), and Looking for Eric (2009).
After seeing Out of Control (2002), Ackroyd’s collaboration with Dominic Savage, Paul Greengrass asked Ackroyd to work on his film United 93, which led to their collaboration on the 2010 film, Green Zone. In 2008, he worked on The Hurt Locker, with Kathryn Bigelow, for which he won a BAFTA, and Oscar nomination. In 2010, he worked with Ralph Fiennes on his directorial debut, Coriolanus, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2011.
