Fuck.

Andrew Lesnie, the Oscar-winning Australian cinematographer most well known for his astonishing work on Peter Jackson’s Lord Of The Rings trilogy – which won him the Oscar in 2002 – has suffered from a fatal heart attack at the age of 59.

“We have been advised of the sudden death of Andrew,” said a spokesman from the Australian Cinematographer Society, adding that Lesnie’s family would release an official statement later.

Lesnie was a true talent. A man with a wondrous vision – as you would have to be to spend over a decade collaborating with one of the biggest filmmakers working today, Peter Jackson. They most notably collaborated on the Middle-Earth movies, bringing J.R.R. Tolkien’s amazing stories to the life, captivating audiences globally, but he also did some great work on other films; he helped George Miller transition into American movies with Babe, he helped reinvigorate the beloved Planet Of The Apes films with Rise and he shot one of my all time favorite movies, King Kong.

Most recently he worked Russell Crowe on his [feature] directorial debut The Water Diviner which, if IMDb is correct, will be his last movie:

 “Master of light,” indeed. Lesnie was the kind of filmmaker that could envision things literally beyond our world – the kind of artist that could find the beautiful in the ravaged Middle-Earth or the primal Skull Island. He consistently found ways to push the boundaries of what we could do technologically speaking – as you can see here – and yet also capture genuinely affecting imagery that lent itself to the story he was telling, achieving a sense of wonder and power on its own accord, like a painting.

I leave you with some of my personal favorite compositions of his:

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