VALE - Louis Irving ACS (1950 - 2016)

VALE - Louis Irving ACS (1950 - 2016)

It is with great sadness that I inform you of the passing of our esteemed friend and colleague, fellow cinematographer Louis Irving ACS after a long battle with illness.

Louis passed away peacefully on December 31 surrounded by his wife, Amanda and his beloved children, Hanna, Paul, Haley and Josh.

Louis Irving was the quintessential “quiet achiever”, a man admired and respected by all he came into contact with. He was an incredibly gifted cinematographer and that other old adage “still waters run deep” certainly applied to Lou. He was a man of the highest integrity and was a great believer in nurturing and encouraging all students of film, and life in general.

His love for his family showed no bounds and it was such a joy to read his accounts of "conversations” with his grandson, that were a mark of Lou’s sense of humour and his caring for family.

For those who don’t know, Louis was born in Queensland in 1950 but was brought up and educated in Melbourne, Victoria. In late 1970 he was one year into a three-year course in Film and Television at the Swinburne Institute of Technology when he spotted, pinned to a corridor noticeboard, a vacancy for a Camera Assistant at a local television drama production company known as Crawford Productions.

He applied and got the job where he stayed for a few years before going freelance to broaden his experience and worked with Australia’s foremost cinematographers either as camera operator or shooting Second Unit.

He was Director of Photography on the 1989 feature film Mushrooms for which he won a Gold Australian Cinematographers Society award and was nominated for an AFI award for best achievement in Cinematography.

His destiny however was the more familiar turf of television drama where he has tallied up a massive amount of shooting hours.

Louis has shot some of Australia’s best known television productions including 124 episodes of Water Rats, Foxtel’s Spirited and the popular Love my Way for which he was nominated for an AFI award.

Other credits include Heartland, Bastard Boys and 20 episodes of the Dr Blake Mysteries for the ABC.

Louis joined the ACS on July 25, 1995, was awarded ACS Accreditation on September 7, 1997 and was inducted into the ACS Hall of Fame in May 2016.

Ron Johanson OAM ACS - National President

Come & say farewell to Lou

2.30pm
Wednesday, 4 January
Macquarie Park Cemetery & Crematorium.
Camelia Chapel,
Cnr Delhi and Plessey Rds,
Macquarie Park NSW 2113.

© 2019 Australian Cinematographers Society