Christopher Doyle

Christopher Doyle became a world-famous cinematographer almost by accident, but he got his bad-boy image the old-fashioned way: he earned it. Over the course of 35 years and about a hundred films, Doyle, 65, has achieved legendary status, renowned for creative camerawork, gorgeous visuals and his contribution, in collaboration with directors like Wong Kar-wai and Zhang Yimou, to Chinese-language cinema, achieving lofty artistic heights in the process. He has a roomful of awards and a reputation for eccentric behaviour but in truth, he's happiest with a camera - or a beer - in his hand.

Doyle has been described as the "Keith Richards of cinematography", and it's a role he seems to relish. With a serious slouch, non-designer stubble and a head of signature silver curls, Doyle is more at ease in a dodgy bar than say, the presidential suite of the Marina Bay Sands, where this interview takes place before he attends the Singapore International Film Festival premiere of The White Girl, which he co-directed with Jenny Suen. He lives up to his reputation by wearing what appears to be an unfinished coat, with tailor markings and temporary stitching still visible. Instead of lining, the inside of the coat is covered with bilingual text, scrawled by friends like the comments column in a guest book. "The Good, the Bad, and the Weird," says one. "A friend in need is a friend in debt," reads another.

At 18, Doyle left his hometown Sydney on a merchant ship and muddled through various odd jobs in Israel, India and Thailand, eventually ending up in Taiwan where he learned Mandarin and taught himself photography. Impressively, he landed a job as cinematographer in director Edward Yang's debut feature That Day, on the Beach (1983), winning a Best Cinematography prize for his troubles.