Javier Aguirresarobe ZubÃÂa ASC (born 10 October 1948) is a Spanish cinematographer. After working primarily in Spanish movies during the 1980s and 1990s, he gained international recognition for his work on The Others (2001). From there, he worked mostly in Hollywood productions, ranging across multiple genres. He is a five-time Goya Award winner (out of 10 total nominations) and a BAFTA Award nominee, among other accolades.
Javier Aguirresarobe ZubÃÂa was born in Eibar, Guipúzcoa, Basque Country, Spain, on 10 October 1948. He has an older brother who was an industrial photographer, whom he used to help in the lab as a teenager, and this sparked his passion for photography.
After earning a Diploma in Optics, He moved to Madrid to study journalism, and worked at various newspapers before deciding to change tack. He studied cinematography at the Official School of Cinematography, which has close links to the Spanish film industry. Only the top nine students in the entrance exam were admitted to the cinematography course. The students used 35mm film.
In 1983, Aguirresarobe's first work as cinematographer was for "a very small movie", La Muerte de Mikel (The Death of Mikel), which turned out to be a success at the box office.
He first attracted international attention with the 1997 film Secrets of the Heart, and even more in 2001 with The Others, directed by Alejandro Amenábar and starring Nicole Kidman.
Aguirresarobe has worked with Spanish directors such as Imanol Uribe, Montxo Armendáriz, Alejandro Amenábar, Pedro Almodóvar, Julio Médem, Montxo Armendáriz, and Fernando Trueba, and internationally, with Miloà ¡ Forman, John Hillcoat, Woody Allen and Chris Weitz.
In 2004, he won the Spanish National Photography Award.
In 2009, Aguirresarobe was one of two recipients to be awarded the Universal Basque Prize by the Lehendakari (the Basque president) "in recognition of their endeavours to disseminate the image of the Basque Country outside its frontiers in the seat of the Lehendakaritza".
In 2012, Aguirresarobe was honoured with membership of the American Society of Cinematographers on the recommendation of Steven Poster, Julio Macat, and Rodrigo Prieto.
Documentary shorts