John S. Bartley obit

In Memoriam — John S. Bartley, ASC, CSC (1947-2025)

 

The cinematographer earned acclaim for his bold approaches to such landmark series as The X-Files and Lost.

He was not on the list.

John S. Bartley, ASC, CSC, who died Aug. 17 in Los Angeles at the age of 78, didn’t see television until he was a teenager, but his career exemplified how visually expressive the medium could be. He established one of the darkest palettes on the air with his bold approach to the first three seasons of The X-Files, and he rendered mysteries of a different sort in a more colorful clime on Lost, serving as one of its directors of photography for six seasons. Both series became international sensations.

Bartley received three ASC Award nominations and two Primetime Emmy nominations for his work on The X-Files, winning the Emmy in 1996 for the episode “Grotesque.” He received additional Emmy nominations for episodes of Lost (“The Constant”) and Bates Motel (“A Danger to Himself and Others”).

Bartley was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on Feb. 12, 1947, to a career Army officer and a theater cashier. When his father died suddenly at age 53, 12-year-old John and his brother joined their mother at work, huddling in the ticket booth until her shift ended. The boys were often allowed to watch whatever was onstage, and musicals were a favorite. Short-wave radio provided glimpses of the world beyond Wellington. When broadcast television arrived in the city in 1960, one channel was offered. “It was movies that fascinated me,” Bartley told AC. “Cinerama was big at the time, and we took school trips to the theater.” 

After high school, he apprenticed with an electrician, and at age 20, he moved to Sydney, Australia, and found work as a lighting director in theater and television. “I was really lucky,” he recalled in 2011. “I didn’t know anything about television, but two lighting technicians at the station taught me what I needed to know. Television was black-and-white in those days, and I learned how to use light to accentuate black-and-white tones … to help tell stories on television screens.” Moving to Canada two years later, he landed a job at rental house William F. White International, Inc., and started connecting with filmmakers. By 1976, he’d started freelancing as a gaffer in Vancouver. “I worked on everything from commercials to TV programs and movies with Sven Nykvist [ASC], Hiro Narita [ASC], Tak Fujimoto [ASC], Frank Tidy [BSC] and Bob Stevens [ASC],” he said. “There is no school like that.” By 1986, he was shooting commercials and music videos, and he made his feature-cinematography debut a few years later on the independent film Beyond the Stars.

As L.A. television production migrated north, Bartley became busy with MOWs and series, shooting episodes of Wiseguy and 21 Jump Street and two full seasons of The Commish, among other projects.

Then producer Robert Goodwin invited him to interview for The X-Files, and for the next three years, he was very busy indeed. “We like it dark, moody, mysterious and sometimes claustrophobic,” series creator Chris Carter told AC in 1995. Bartley noted wryly that in the show’s early days, “we didn’t have any money, and that had a lot to do with the look. Most of our sets weren’t finished; if you looked down the end of a hallway, there was nothing there, or there might be the sets of some other production, so we’d put something down there like a bright light or an object that couldn’t be identified.”

Bartley subsequently garnered acclaim for his work on multiple seasons of Lost, a thriller about plane-crash survivors stranded in the tropics, and Bates Motel, a psychological drama that imagines a backstory for Psycho’s Norman Bates. His credits also included full seasons of Roswell and Wu Assassins; the MOWs Hostage Rescue Team (directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak, ASC) and The Matthew Shepard Story; the feature Eight Legged Freaks; episodes of Vikings and Walker: Independence; and 2nd-unit cinematography on The Chronicles of Riddick and The X-Files: I Want to Believe.

Bartley became an ASC member in 1997 after being proposed by Robert Primes, Michael Watkins and Robert Stevens.

“The best advice I can give anyone is that there is nothing easy about working in this industry,” he said. “You have to love it, because it is tough on family life when you are working 70 to 80 hours a week. Not everyone can do it.”

Director

 

    Fear Factory: Cars (1999)

    Fear Factory: Cars

 

7.4

Music Video

 

    Director

 

    1999

 

Producer

 

    Alexandra Levy in Take One - She (2022)

    Take One - She

    Short

        producer

        2022

 

Cinematographer

 

Swampy Roads

 

    Cinematographer

 

    Pre-production

 

    Alexandra Levy in Take One - She (2022)

    Take One - She

    Short

        Cinematographer

        2022

 

Matt Barr, Katherine McNamara, and Justin Johnson Cortez in Walker: Independence (2022)

Walker: Independence

6.8

TV Series

 

    director of photography

 

    2022

 

Jason O'Mara and Kate Siegel in Hypnotic (2021)

Hypnotic

5.3

 

    director of photography

 

    2021

 

Larsen Thompson in Pearl (2020)

Pearl

4.8

 

    Cinematographer

 

    2020

 

Riley Smith, Leah Lewis, Tunji Kasim, Alex Saxon, Maddison Jaizani, and Kennedy McMann in Nancy Drew (2019)

Nancy Drew

6.7

TV Series

 

    director of photography

 

    2019

 

Iko Uwais in Wu Assassins (2019)

Wu Assassins

6.4

TV Series

 

    Cinematographer

 

    2019

 

Insomnia (2018)

Insomnia

5.6

TV Series

 

    Cinematographer

 

    2018

 

Freddie Highmore in The Good Doctor (2017)

The Good Doctor

8.0

TV Series

 

    director of photography (as John Bartley)

 

    2017–2018

 

Vera Farmiga and Freddie Highmore in Bates Motel (2013)

Bates Motel

8.1

TV Series

 

    director of photography

 

    2013–2017

 

Scott Bellis, Kendall Cross, Andrew McNee, Emma Grabinsky, and Maxwell Haynes in Grand Unified Theory (2016)

Grand Unified Theory

6.0

 

    Cinematographer

 

    2016

 

The Returned (2015)

The Returned

7.0

TV Series

 

    director of photography

 

    2015

 

Rose McIver in iZombie (2015)

iZombie

7.8

TV Series

 

    director of photography

 

    2015

 

Hunting Season (2013)

Hunting Season

4.4

 

    Cinematographer

 

    2013

 

Travis Fimmel in Vikings (2013)

Vikings

8.5

TV Series

 

    Cinematographer (as John Bartley)

 

    2013

 

Undercovers (2010)

Undercovers

5.6

TV Series

 

    director of photography

 

    2010–2012

 

Jamie Bamber, James Callis, and Tricia Helfer in 17th Precinct (2011)

17th Precinct

7.1

TV Movie

 

    Cinematographer

 

    2011

 

Minka Kelly, Rachael Taylor, and Annie Ngosi Ilonzeh in Charlie's Angels (2011)

Charlie's Angels

4.4

TV Series

 

    director of photography (as John Bartley)

 

    2011

 

Alfred Molina, Bill Pullman, Marcia Gay Harden, and Richard Schiff in Innocent (2011)

Innocent

5.6

TV Movie

 

    Cinematographer

 

    2011

 

Felicia Day in Dragon Age: Redemption (2011)

Dragon Age: Redemption

6.1

TV Series

 

    Cinematographer

 

    2011

 

Naveen Andrews, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Daniel Dae Kim, Emilie de Ravin, Matthew Fox, Jorge Garcia, Josh Holloway, Yunjin Kim, Dominic Monaghan, Terry O'Quinn, Harold Perrineau, Michelle Rodriguez, Cynthia Watros, Maggie Grace, and Evangeline Lilly in Lost (2004)

Lost

8.3

TV Series

 

    director of photography

 

    2005–2010

 

Allure

Short

 

    Cinematographer

 

    2009

 

Rutger Hauer, Andie MacDowell, Aidan Quinn, John Carroll Lynch, Morris Chestnut, Sharon Lawrence, Piper Perabo, and Warren Christie in The Prince of Motor City (2008)

The Prince of Motor City

7.3

TV Movie

 

    Cinematographer

 

    2008

 

Gray Matters (2006)

Gray Matters

5.7

 

    Cinematographer

 

    2006

 

Tom Sizemore, Tamara Hope, and Reiley McClendon in The Nickel Children (2005)

The Nickel Children

5.3

 

    Cinematographer

 

    2005

 

Odd Girl Out (2005)

Odd Girl Out

6.5

TV Movie

 

    director of photography

 

    2005

 

James Kirk and George Lopez in Naughty or Nice (2004)

Naughty or Nice

5.4

TV Movie

 

    director of photography (as John Bartley)

 

    2004

 

Alien Lockdown (2004)

Alien Lockdown

3.7

TV Movie

 

    director of photography (as John Bartley)

 

    2004

 

Then Came Jones

7.0

TV Movie

 

    Cinematographer

 

    2003

 

Jeff Goldblum, Liev Schreiber, and Anthony LaPaglia in Spinning Boris (2003)

Spinning Boris

6.6

TV Movie

 

    director of photography (as John Bartley)

 

    2003

 

Eliza Dushku in Wrong Turn (2003)

Wrong Turn

6.1

 

    Cinematographer

 

    2003

 

Father Lefty (2002)

Father Lefty

5.9

TV Movie

 

    Cinematographer

 

    2002

 

David Arquette and Kari Wuhrer in Eight Legged Freaks (2002)

Eight Legged Freaks

5.5

 

    Cinematographer

 

    2002

 

Eddie Cahill in Glory Days (2001)

Glory Days

6.4

TV Series

 

    director of photography (as John Bartley)

 

    2002

 

Stockard Channing, Sam Waterston, and Shane Thomas Meier in The Matthew Shepard Story (2002)

The Matthew Shepard Story

7.3

TV Movie

 

    director of photography (as John Bartley)

 

    2002

 

Another Life (2002)

Another Life

6.5

Short

 

    director of photography (as John Bartley)

 

    2002

 

Hostage Rescue Team

5.8

TV Movie

 

    Cinematographer

 

    2001

 

Black River (2001)

Black River

5.7

TV Movie

 

    director of photography

 

    2001

 

See Spot Run (2001)

See Spot Run

5.4

 

    director of photography (as John Bartley)

 

    2001

 

Shauna Kain and Colleen Rennison in A Feeling Called Glory (2000)

A Feeling Called Glory

6.1

Short

 

    Cinematographer

 

    2000

 

Roswell (1999)

Roswell

7.5

TV Series

 

    director of photography

 

    1999–2000

 

Masters of Horror and Suspense

6.9

 

    Cinematographer

 

    1999

 

A Cooler Climate (1999)

A Cooler Climate

6.6

TV Movie

 

    director of photography (as John Bartley)

 

    1999

 

Nick Stahl, Katie Holmes, and James Marsden in Disturbing Behavior (1998)

Disturbing Behavior

5.7

 

    director of photography

 

    1998

 

Behind the scenes shot provided by Grand L. Bush

The Visitor

7.0

TV Series

 

    director of photography

 

    1997–1998

 

Tricks (1997)

Tricks

4.8

TV Movie

 

    Cinematographer

 

    1997

 

Echo (1997)

Echo

5.3

TV Movie

 

    Cinematographer

 

    1997

 

Kyle Chandler and Shanesia Davis in Early Edition (1996)

Early Edition

7.6

TV Series

 

    Cinematographer

 

    1996

 

Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny in The X-Files (1993)

The X-Files

8.6

TV Series

 

    director of photography

 

    1993–1996

 

Richard Dean Anderson and Susan Dey in Beyond Betrayal (1994)

Beyond Betrayal

5.4

TV Movie

 

    Cinematographer

 

    1994

 

Michael Chiklis in The Commish (1991)

The Commish

7.1

TV Series

 

    director of photography

 

    1991–1993

 

Home Movie

6.6

TV Movie

 

    Cinematographer

 

    1992

 

Jumpin' Joe (1992)

Jumpin' Joe

TV Movie

 

    Cinematographer

 

    1992

 

Charles Bronson, Richard Thomas, and Katharine Isabelle in Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus (1991)

Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus

7.2

TV Movie

 

    director of photography

 

    1991

 

Broken Badges (1990)

Broken Badges

7.2

TV Mini Series

 

    director of photography

 

    1991

 

Johnny Depp, Holly Robinson Peete, Peter DeLuise, Dustin Nguyen, and Steven Williams in 21 Jump Street (1987)

21 Jump Street

7.2

TV Series

 

    director of photography

 

    1990–1991

 

Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Banks, and Ken Wahl in Wiseguy (1987)

Wiseguy

7.7

TV Series

 

    director of photography

 

    1990

 

Richard Grieco in Booker (1989)

Booker

6.2

TV Series

 

    director of photography

 

    1990

 

Damon Martin in Sky High (1990)

Sky High

6.7

TV Movie

 

    director of photography (as John Bartley)

 

    1990

 

Christian Slater and Martin Sheen in Beyond the Stars (1989)

Beyond the Stars

5.2

 

    director of photography (as John Bartley)

 

    1989

 

Camera and Electrical Department

 

    Joel Kinnaman in RoboCop (2014)

    RoboCop

 

6.1

 

    director of photography: splinter unit, Vancouver (as John Bartley)

 

    2014

 

Rutger Hauer, Andie MacDowell, Aidan Quinn, John Carroll Lynch, Morris Chestnut, Sharon Lawrence, Piper Perabo, and Warren Christie in The Prince of Motor City (2008)

The Prince of Motor City

7.3

TV Movie

 

    cinematographer

 

    2008

 

The X Files: I Want to Believe (2008)

The X Files: I Want to Believe

5.9

 

    director of photography: second unit

 

    2008

 

Vin Diesel in The Chronicles of Riddick (2004)

The Chronicles of Riddick

6.6

 

    director of photography: second unit

 

    2004

 

Mia Kirshner, Graham Greene, Lou Diamond Phillips, Paul Wesley, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Wolf Lake (2001)

Wolf Lake

7.4

TV Series

 

    director of photography: second unit

 

    2001

 

Paul Newman, Linda Fiorentino, and Dermot Mulroney in Where the Money Is (2000)

Where the Money Is

6.3

 

    director of photography: second unit (as John Bartley)

 

    2000

 

Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny in The X-Files (1993)

The X-Files

8.6

TV Series

 

    second unit director of photography

 

    1997

 

Bob Dawson and Nicholas Lea in The Raffle (1994)

The Raffle

3.7

 

    director of photography: second unit (as John Bartley)

 

    1994

 

Richard Dreyfuss, Emilio Estevez, and Rosie O'Donnell in Another Stakeout (1993)

Another Stakeout

5.6

 

    director of photography: second unit (as John Bartley)

 

    1993

 

Eye of the Widow (1991)

Eye of the Widow

3.7

 

    director of photography: Canada

 

    1991

 

James Woods, Glenn Close, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Kevin Dillon in Immediate Family (1989)

Immediate Family

6.0

 

    chief lighting technician

 

    1989

 

Tom Berenger and Debra Winger in Betrayed (1988)

Betrayed

6.4

 

    chief lighting technician (as John Bartley)

 

    1988

 

Backfire (1987)

Backfire

5.4

 

    gaffer

 

    1987

 

The Room Upstairs (1987)

The Room Upstairs

5.7

TV Movie

 

    gaffer (as John Bartley)

 

    1987

 

Lucy Deakins in The Boy Who Could Fly (1986)

The Boy Who Could Fly

6.6

 

    gaffer: second unit (as John Bartley)

 

    1986

 

Nobody's Child (1986)

Nobody's Child

7.0

TV Movie

 

    gaffer (as John Bartley)

 

    1986

 

Walt Disney in The Magical World of Disney (1954)

The Magical World of Disney

8.3

TV Series

 

    gaffer (as John Bartley)

 

    1986

 

Mare Winningham, Phyllis Frelich, and Ed Waterstreet in Love Is Never Silent (1985)

Love Is Never Silent

8.1

TV Movie

 

    gaffer

 

    1985

 

Picking Up the Pieces (1985)

Picking Up the Pieces

6.4

TV Movie

 

    gaffer

 

    1985

 

Kristy McNichol in Love, Mary (1985)

Love, Mary

6.5

TV Movie

 

    gaffer (as John Bartley)

 

    1985

 

The Journey of Natty Gann (1985)

The Journey of Natty Gann

7.0

 

    gaffer (as John Bartley)

 

    1985

 

The Glitter Dome (1984)

The Glitter Dome

5.7

TV Movie

 

    gaffer

 

    1984

 

The Three Wishes of Billy Grier (1984)

The Three Wishes of Billy Grier

6.7

TV Movie

 

    gaffer (uncredited)

 

    1984

 

Secrets of a Married Man (1984)

Secrets of a Married Man

5.5

TV Movie

 

    gaffer

 

    1984

 

Timothy Hutton and John Lone in Iceman (1984)

Iceman

6.2

 

    gaffer (as John Bartley)

 

    1984

 

Charles Martin Smith in Never Cry Wolf (1983)

Never Cry Wolf

7.5

 

    electrician (as John Bartley)

 

    1983

 

Molly Ringwald and Peter Strauss in Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (1983)

Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone

5.5

 

    gaffer (as John Bartley)

 

    1983

 

Packin' It In (1983)

Packin' It In

5.6

TV Movie

 

    gaffer (as John Bartley)

 

    1983

 

Sylvester Stallone in First Blood (1982)

First Blood

7.7

 

    lighting consultant (as John Bartley)

 

    1982

 

Richard Farnsworth in The Grey Fox (1982)

The Grey Fox

7.3

 

    gaffer (as John Bartley)

 

    1982

 

Bette Davis in A Piano for Mrs. Cimino (1982)

A Piano for Mrs. Cimino

7.6

TV Movie

 

    gaffer

 

    1982

 

The Babysitter (1980)

The Babysitter

5.5

TV Movie

 

    gaffer (uncredited)

 

    1980

 

Mr. Patman (1980)

Mr. Patman

5.4

 

    gaffer (as John Bartley)

 

    1980

 

Huckleberry Finn and His Friends (1979)

Huckleberry Finn and His Friends

8.1

TV Series

 

    gaffer (as John Bartley)

 

    1980

 

Vanessa Redgrave, Donald Sutherland, and Lawrence Dane in Bear Island (1979)

Bear Island

5.8

 

    gaffer-Canada (as John Bartley)

 

    1979

 

Who'll Save Our Children? (1978)

Who'll Save Our Children?

6.5

TV Movie

 

    gaffer

 

    1978

 

Hap Johnson in Spartree (1978)

Spartree

8.0

Short

 

    lighting technician

 

    1978

 

Outtakes

Short

 

    gaffer (as John Bartley)

 

    1977

 

Additional Crew

 

    The Fare (1999)

    The Fare

    Short

        mentor: director of photography (as John Bartley)

        1999

 

Self

 

    Bobby Roth in A Director Prepares: Bobby Roth's Masterclass (2016)

    A Director Prepares: Bobby Roth's Masterclass

 

8.2

TV Series

 

    Self

 

    2016

 

The Interviews: An Oral History of Television (1997)

The Interviews: An Oral History of Television

7.3

TV Series

 

    Self

 

    2009

 

The Grey Fox (1982) Filmmaker Phillip Borsos

Inventing Grace, Touching Glory

7.6

 

    Self (as John Bartley)

 

    2003