Born on June 29, 1967 in Armagh, Northern Ireland, McGarvey developed a passion for photography when he began learning the technical aspects in a dark room at home when he was 13 years old. While attending Christian Brothers Grammar School, an art teacher, Declan Forde, let the lad borrow an 8mm camera with which to experiment, leading to his enrollment for three years at the City of London Polytechnic (now London Guildhall University) to study film. Immediately upon leaving school, McGarvey sought work as a clapper loader and camera assistant, landing occasional work while using his painting and decorating skills to make ends meet. In the early 1990s, he had assistant gigs on features like “December Bride” (1990) and “Dakota Road” (1991), while filming several shorts, including “Mad Bad Mortal Beings” (1991), “Damsel Jam (1992) and “Marooned” (1993).
One of his first gigs as a DP was on the psychological thriller “Look Me in the Eye” (1994). After winning an award at Cannes for his work on Michael Winterbottom’s short film, “Floating,” he shot “Butterfly Kiss” (1995) for the director, a dark road picture about two women; one a murderer (Amanda Plummer), the other (Saskia Reeves) impulsive and wild, but who naively thinks she can save her friend. Following a string of television documentaries and features like “Jude” (1996) and “The Slab Boys” (1997), McGarvey turned the cold, grey rocky beaches and relentlessly cloudy skies of Scotland beautiful and elegiac in Alan Rickman’s “The Winter Guest” (1997). For “The War Zone” (1999), Tim Roth’s stark coming-of-age tale about a young boy (Freddie Cunliffe) dealing with incest, McGarvey used England’s famed gloom to great effect, creating a somber look that underscored the boy’s tragic family life.
After filming “A Map of the World” (1999), starring Julianne Moore and Sigourney Weaver, he firmly established himself with his work on “High Fidelity” (2000), the American-made adaptation of novel Nick Hornby’s novel, set originally in Britain, about a record store owner (John Cusack) who seeks out his last five girlfriends to find out what he did wrong in order to win back his current girlfriend (Iben Hjejle). Thanks to “High Fidelity,” more American filmmakers sat up and began to take notice of McGarvey. He returned to England, however, to film the dour World War II espionage film, “Enigma” (2001), then shot Stephen Daldry’s beautifully well-made period drama, “The Hours” (2002). McGarvey was tasked with masking Nicole Kidman’s prosthetic nose, which she wore in her guise as suicidal author Virginia Woolf, a tricky prospect that he solved with low-key lighting and shooting her at the right angles.
Turning to more Hollywood fare, McGarvey worked on the Ben Stiller-Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy, “Along Came Polly” (2004), then shot his first big budget tent pole, “Sahara” (2005), an substandard adaptation of the Clive Cussler novel about a group of explorers searching the dangerous region of West Africa for missing treasure. He brought stunning detail and touching movement to Oliver Stone’s somber tribute to the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, “World Trade Center” (2006). Then with “Atonement” (2007), a heart-wrenching tale about two lovers (Keira Knightley and James McAvoy) torn apart by the false accusation of a 13-year-old girl (Saoirse Ronan). For the first half of the film – which takes place on a hot summer day in 1935 – McGarvey evoked a soft, lush tone sprinkled with the sudden harshness of sunlight. The second half, which depicts World War II raging throughout Europe, McGarvey overexposed many of the shots in order to bring out the stark horrors of war. McGarvey earned his first Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography.