Keith Partridge is an International Emmy award-winning cinematographer known for his work in extreme environments, including the BBC's iconic Human Planet series, where he filmed the 'Eagle Hunters' of Western Mongolia, inside an active volcano in Indonesia, and in Greenland in winter.
In a career spanning over 30 years he has witnessed and pushed the limits of adventure filmmaking across 70 films that have taken him to some of the most remote places on Earth.
Keith is the recipient of the Guild of Television Camera Professionals Award for Excellence, the Explorers Festival Camera Extreme award and was the International Alliance for Mountain Film Grand Prize winner in 2019.
You left your job with the BBC to pursue a career as an adventure filmmaker. What drove you to do that?
I joined the BBC straight from school as a 'technical operator' – a kind of jack of all trades, and mastered in two areas: location camerawork and sound. Work was a heap of fun but my weekend warrior life as a climber and mountaineer, coupled with reading books by mountain filmmakers Jim Curran and Leo Dickinson, made me wonder if there was a path where I could combine my fledgling career in television with what had become an all-consuming passion. After six years at the BBC I resigned and sold my house and car. With no financial burdens, and essentially no full-time employment, I was free to see if my pipe-dream could become a reality. It was like falling off a metaphoric cliff.
With no financial burdens, and essentially no full-time employment, I was free to see if my pipe-dream could become a reality. It was like falling off a metaphoric cliff.
Did your new career choice require special training?
My first expedition, ski-mountaineering on the . dpreview.com
2019-7-3 17:00
