Australian cinematographer Andrew Lesnie, an Oscar winner for his work on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, has died at the age of 59.



The Sydney film-maker won the Academy award for best cinematography for The Fellowship of the Ring in 2002, and also worked with Jackson on King Kong, The Lovely Bones and his Hobbit films.

Lesnie’s death was confirmed by the Australian Cinematographers Society on Tuesday. “We have been advised of the sudden death of Andrew,” a spokesman said, adding that his family would make an official statement at a later time.

In a career spanning almost four decades, Lesnie started out as assistant camera operator on the 1978 Australian horror movie Patrick while still at film school, and was most recently cinematographer on Russell Crowe’s directorial debut, The Water Diviner.

Crowe tweeted his devastation at Lesnie’s death, calling him “the master of light”.

Devastating news from home. The master of the light, genius Andrew Lesnie has passed on . — Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) April 28, 2015

There was grief too from the wider film industry in Australia and New Zealand, where The Lord of the Rings films were made.

Film writer Harry Knowles called him the “Cheshire cat behind the camera” next to Jackson. “Lesnie and Peter Jackson would giggle behind the camera together like the most mischievous pair of movie masters that I’ve seen,” tweeted Knowles, one of many Lord of the Rings fans taking to social media to pay tribute.

Lesnie also worked on Chris Noonan’s 1995 hit Babe (and its darker sequel Babe: Pig in the City), whose “bright sunshine-infused aesthetic” Guardian Australia’s Luke Buckmaster celebrated in an article marking the film’s 20th anniversary this year.