Tomás Pladevall, the master of light in Catalan cinema, has died.

BarcelonaTomàs PladevallThe great cinematographer of Catalan cinema, has died at the age of 79, according to the Catalan Film Academy. Pladevall worked on more than 50 films, seventy television productions, more than 400 short films, and dozens of plays, concerts, and live performances; in total, he estimated having shot 90 million frames throughout a career in which he collaborated with directors such as José Luis Guerin, Bigas Luna, Francesc Bellmunt, and Pere Portabella.

In his role as a teacher, Pladevall also trained the eyes of several generations of chess students. A founding member and honorary member of the Film Academy, he was responsible for the lighting of the opening and closing ceremonies of the Barcelona Olympic Games. When he won the Gaudí d'Honor in 2022, the first time it had not been awarded to a filmmaker or actor, the Academy justified the prize by noting that Pladevall had been able to "create his own world of light for each of the directors he has worked with, all of them great names in the history of cinema in our country." Born in Sabadell in 1946, Pladevall studied technical engineering and industrial design, but graduated as a cinematographer in 1972 from the Official Film School of Madrid (EOC). As a young man, he worked as a projectionist at the Imperial cinemas in Sabadell and, with his childhood friend Francesc Bellmunt, formed an amateur production company. Later, also with Bellmunt, he filmed his first professional film in 1974, Robin Hood never dies. The collaboration extended to iconic titles of the era such as Canet Rock (1976), The New Song (1976), The orgy (1978) or Health and strength in the joint (1979). Pladevall also worked with Ventura Pons on The vicar of Olot and Actresses, and with Pere Portabella he filmed important works such as the clandestine Dinner (1974), Warsaw Bridge (1989) and The silence before Bach (2007). He got along best with José Luis Guerin, the director of Shadow train (1996). "With Guerin, I could spend half an hour discussing whether to raise or lower the frame by a millimeter," Pladevall explained in 2022 at the ARA. "He's the only director I've ever had by my side in the lab during post-production, because he has an incredible understanding of color nuances and light intensities."

A tireless worker, as depicted in the documentary about him, ShadesHe explained that he couldn't attend his father's funeral because he had a film shoot that day. "The director of photography is responsible for maintaining continuity," Pladevall justified. "That means you have to be there. I've never missed a shoot, never. I might have had a bad night and felt dizzy, but the next day I showered and went to the shoot." After his last job as director of photography, The female gender (Carles Benpar, 2011), Pladevall focused on his teaching work at various institutions, primarily at the Chess Academy, where he spearheaded the international master's program in cinematography. Pladevall also collaborated with the Filmoteca de Catalunya (Catalan Film Archive) on film conservation and restoration projects, and advised the center on matters related to film and digital formats. He was always a pioneer in working with new technologies. "My job is to understand all kinds of formats," he explained in 2022. "I shot the first television commercial using electronic media when everything was still done on film. I was the first to use the Sony digital camera that arrived in Barcelona; it weighed 27 kilos, it was an iron monster."