Guillermo Jorge Navarro Solares, (born July 29, 1955) is a Mexican cinematographer and television director.Scott, A. O. (November 21, 2001). The New York Times. The Devil's Backbone (review overview).
He had been a frequent collaborator of Robert Rodriguez and Guillermo del Toro, with his work on Pan's Labyrinth earning him the Academy Award for Best Cinematography.
After making his first directorial effort with a music video for Mia Maestro titled "Blue Eyed Sailor", Navarro then shifted to a career as a TV director of series like Hannibal and Luke Cage, and was an executive producer on the National Geographic documentary series Hostile Planet, for which he earned his first Primetime Emmy nomination.
Early life and education Navarro was born in 1955 in Mexico City.
He began taking still photographs at age 13 when he took a photography workshop in middle school, and built his own darkroom. He then worked for several years as a freelance photographer, working on everything from album covers to fashion photography. He attended the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where he graduated with a degree in Sociology.
Career Navarro began working in the film industry when his sister, a producer, hired him as on-set still and continuity photographer for one of her films. The experience triggered an interest in cinematography, and he began working as a camera assistant. Rather than working his way up through the Mexican film industry the traditional way, he instead moved to Paris where he became the apprentice of cinematographer Ricardo Aronovich. He worked for around 10 years before shooting his first feature.
Film Navarro quickly formed a partnership with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, first by shooting commercials then later his directorial debut Cronos, which won the prestigious Golden Ariel. Navarro moved to the United States in 1994, where he shot several films for director Robert Rodriguez and worked with high-profile directors Renny Harlin and Quentin Tarantino. He returned to Mexico in 2001 to shoot del Toro's The Devil's Backbone.
Television Navarro began working as a director in 2013 with an episode of Hannibal. He has subsequently directed episodes for shows like The Bridge, Narcos, Preacher, and Luke Cage.
In 2019, Navarro worked as an executive producer on the National Geographic documentary series Hostile Planet, earning him an nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.
Style His work often features very vivid blues and yellows which often take up most of the image, and the film's grain structure often switches between well-defined and sharp, and somewhat smoothed over or very fine.
In Pan's Labyrinth, Navarro and Del Toro had to work with a largely unfamiliar Spanish crew due to their usual crew's unavailability. Navarro shot the film using his personal Moviecam Compact and Arriflex 435 ES cameras and Zeiss Ultra Prime and Variable Prime lenses. He used three different Kodak film stocks: Vision2 200T 5217, Vision2 500T 5218, and Vision 250D 5246, depending on the lighting conditions under which a scene was filmed. Much of the film was shot using day for night, underexposing the film three or four F stops. He purposefully kept lighting effects that could only be attained with sunlight, which jarred the image when it passed itself as night, creating an aura of experimentation. Because of the awkwardly-shaped spaces of the fantasy sets, Navarro had to be creative with his lighting, finding places to put his lamps that also didn't disrupt the image. A lot of light was strictly attained by bouncing it into the set. For certain scenes, the crew also drilled tiny holes into the walls of the set and placed little lights into the spaces.
Filmography Cinematographer
Feature film Year Title Director 1986 Amor a la vuelta de la esquina Alberto Cortés 1990 Morir en el golfo Alejandro Pelayo1991 Cabeza de Vaca Nicolás Echevarría Intimidades de un cuarto de baño Jaime Humberto Hermosillo1992 Cronos Guillermo del Toro Vinaya Josse De PauwPeter van Kraaij 1993 Dollar Mambo Paul Leduc 1995 DesperadoRobert Rodriguez1996 From Dusk till Dawn Dream for an Insomniac Tiffanie DeBartolo The Long Kiss Goodnight Renny Harlin1997 Spawn Mark A.Z. Dippé Jackie Brown Quentin Tarantino 1999 Stuart Little Rob Minkoff2001 Spy Kids Robert Rodriguez The Devil's Backbone Guillermo del Toro Broken Silence Montxo Armendáriz 2003 Imagining Argentina Christopher Hampton 2004 Hellboy Guillermo del Toro 2005 Zathura: A Space Adventure Jon Favreau2006 Pan's Labyrinth Guillermo del Toro Night at the Museum Shawn Levy 2008 Hellboy II: The Golden Army Guillermo del Toro2011 The Resident Antti Jokinen I Am Number Four D. J. Caruso The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1Bill Condon 2012 The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 2013 Pacific Rim Guillermo del Toro 2014 Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb Shawn Levy 2018 London Fields Mathew Cullen 2020 Dolittle Stephen Gaghan 2021 The Unforgivable Nora Fingscheidt
Television Year Title Director Notes 1989 Trying Times Michael Lindsay-Hogg Episode "The Hit List" 1993 The Cover Girl Murders James A. ContnerTV movie1994 The Cisco Kid Luis Valdez ABC Afterschool Special Lorna Davis Episode "Just Chill" 2012 Mockingbird Lane Bryan Fuller TV special 2017 Star Trek: Discovery David Semel Episode "The Vulcan Hello" 2018 Cocaine Godmother Himself TV movie 2019 Godfather of Harlem John Ridley Episode "By Whatever Means Necessary"
Music video Year Title Artist2016 "Fade" Kanye West "My Way" Calvin Harris
Director Short film Blue Eyed Sailor (2012) (Also producer)
Television Year Title Notes 2013-15 Hannibal 6 episodes 2014 The Bridge Episode "Rakshasa"2015 The Whispers Episode "Meltdown" Narcos Episodes "The Men of Always" and "The Palace in Flames" Limitless Episode "The Legend of Marcos Ramos" Sleepy Hollow Episode "The Sisters Mills"2016 Damien Episode "The Deliverer" Preacher Episode "Sundowner" Luke Cage Episode "Who's Gonna Take the Weight?" 2018 Cocaine Godmother TV movie 2019-25 Godfather of Harlem 11 episodes 2020 For Life Episodes "Witness" and "Burner" 2022 Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities Episode "Lot 36" 2024 Hotel Cocaine 4 episodes
Music video Year Title Artist 2012 "Blue Eyed Sailor" Mía Maestro
Awards and nominations Year Award Category Title Result2006 Academy Awards Best CinematographyPan's Labyrinth Boston Society of Film Critics Best Cinematography Camerimage Golden Frog Florida Film Critics Circle Best Cinematography Goya Awards Best Cinematography Independent Spirit Awards Best Cinematography New York Film Critics Circle Best Cinematographer Ariel Award Best Cinematography BAFTA Awards Best Cinematography British Society of Cinematographers Best Cinematography 2008 Satellite Awards Best Cinematography It Might Get Loud 2019 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Documentary Series Hostile Planet
References
External links
Internet Encyclopedia of Cinematographers