My all-time favorite cinematographers.

1. Roger Deakins

Cinematographer | Blade Runner 2049

Roger Deakins is an English cinematographer best known for his work on the films of the Coen brothers, Sam Mendes, and Denis Villeneuve.

He is a member of both the American and British Society of Cinematographers.

Deakins' first feature film in America as cinematographer was Mountains of the Moon (...

2. Janusz Kaminski

Cinematographer | War Horse

Janusz Kaminski is a Polish cinematographer and film director. He has established a partnership with Steven Spielberg, working as a cinematographer on his movies since 1993. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Schindler's List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998).

His ...

3. Conrad L. Hall

Cinematographer | Road to Perdition

Born in Tahiti, the son of writer James Norman Hall, author of "Mutiny on the Bounty," Conrad Hall studied filmmaking at USC. He and two classmates formed a production company and sold a project to a local television station. Hall's company branched out into making industrial films and TV ...

4. John Toll

Cinematographer | Braveheart

John Toll is an American cinematographer. His filmography spans a wide variety of genres, including epic period drama, comedy, science fiction, and contemporary drama. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography in both 1994 and 1995 for Legends of the Fall and Braveheart respectively.

He has ...

5. Robert Richardson

Cinematographer | Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Robert Richardson has won three Academy Awards and earned seven Academy Award nominations for his cinematography. His work on director Oliver Stone's JFK earned him his first Oscar. His second and third came with The Aviator and Hugo directed by Martin Scorsese. These two films also garnered him ...

6. Rodrigo Prieto

Cinematographer | Brokeback Mountain

Rodrigo Prieto is a Mexican cinematographer. He is best known for Brokeback Mountain (2005), Babel (2006), Argo (2012), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and Silence (2016).

He also worked with Alejandro González Iñárritu on the acclaimed Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003), and Biutiful (2010).

...

7. Andrew Lesnie

Cinematographer | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Andrew Lesnie was an Australian cinematographer who frequently worked with Peter Jackson. He did the photography for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies. He also did the photography for Babe, King Kong, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I Am Legend and The Lovely Bones. He passed away...

8. Robert Elswit

Cinematographer | There Will Be Blood

Robert Elswit is an American cinematographer. He is best known for Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), There Will Be Blood (2007), Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011), Inherent Vice (2014), and Nightcrawler (2014).

Elswit frequently works with director ...

9. Michael Ballhaus

Cinematographer | Goodfellas

Michael Ballhaus was a German cinematographer. He worked on many American films, including Baby It's You (1983), Old Enough (1984), After Hours (1985), The Color of Money (1986), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Dracula (1992), The Age of Innocence (1993), Gangs of New York ...

10. John Mathieson

Cinematographer | Gladiator

John Mathieson came up through the traditional camera ranks. Before his start as a cinematographer in feature films he shot many music videos, documentaries and TV commercials. He also worked in cutting rooms and has always considered himself as a film maker, interested in all areas of the process,...

11. Remi Adefarasin

Cinematographer | Elizabeth

Remi Adefarasin was born on February 2, 1948 in London, England, UK. He is a cinematographer, known for Elizabeth (1998), Everest (2015) and Match Point (2005).

12. Freddie Young

Cinematographer | Lawrence of Arabia

Freddie Young was a British cinematographer. He is best known for his work on David Lean's films Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965) and Ryan's Daughter (1970), all three of which won him Academy Awards for Best Cinematography.

Young was an cinematographer on 130 films, including ...

13. Philippe Rousselot

Cinematographer | Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles

Philippe Rousselot was born on September 4, 1945 in Briey, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France. He is a cinematographer and director, known for Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), A River Runs Through It (1992) and Dangerous Liaisons (1988).

14. Emmanuel Lubezki

Cinematographer | Children of Men

Lubezki began his career in Mexican film and television productions in the late 1980s. His first international production was the 1993 independent film Twenty Bucks (1993), which followed the journey of a single twenty-dollar bill.

Lubezki is a frequent collaborator with fellow Mexican filmmaker ...

15. Wally Pfister

Cinematographer | Inception

Wally Pfister is an American cinematographer and film director, who is best known for his work with Christopher Nolan. He is also known for his work on director F. Gary Gray's The Italian Job (2003) and Bennett Miller's Moneyball (2011).

He made his directorial debut with the film Transcendence (...

16. Gregg Toland

Cinematographer | Citizen Kane

Born in Illinois in 1904, the only child of Jennie and Frank Toland, Gregg and his mother moved to California several years after his parents divorced in 1910. Through Jennie's work as a housekeeper for several people in the movie business, Gregg may had gotten a $12-a-week job at age 15 as an ...

17. John Seale

Cinematographer | Mad Max: Fury Road

John Seale was born on October 5, 1942 in Warwick, Queensland, Australia. He is a cinematographer and director, known for Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), The English Patient (1996) and Witness (1985). He has been married to Louise Seale since September 23, 1967. They have two children.

18. Arthur Edeson

Cinematographer | Casablanca

Arthur Edeson is an American cinematographer who was a pioneer of his craft. His career spanned four decades and encompassed many films now regarded as classics.

Born in New York in 1891, Edeson first worked as a still photographer. In 1911 he entered the movie business at Eclair Studios, a ...

19. Dean Semler

Cinematographer | Apocalypto

Dean Semler was born on May 26, 1943 in Renmark, South Australia, Australia. He is a cinematographer and assistant director, known for Apocalypto (2006), Dances with Wolves (1990) and Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981). He is married to Annie Semler.

20. Tom Stern

Cinematographer | Changeling

Tom Stern was born on December 16, 1946 in Palo Alto, California, USA. He is a cinematographer and director, known for Changeling (2008), Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and Mystic River (2003). He was previously married to Françoise Combadière.

21. Eduardo Serra

Cinematographer | Girl with a Pearl Earring

Eduardo Serra was born on October 2, 1943 in Lisbon, Portugal. He is a cinematographer and director, known for Girl with a Pearl Earring (2003), Unbreakable (2000) and Blood Diamond (2006).

22. Slawomir Idziak

Cinematographer | Trois couleurs: Bleu

Slawomir Idziak was born on January 25, 1945 in Katowice, Slaskie, Poland. He is a cinematographer and writer, known for Three Colors: Blue (1993), Black Hawk Down (2001) and Gattaca (1997). He was previously married to Maria Gladkowska.

23. Dariusz Wolski

Cinematographer | The Martian

Dariusz Wolski is a Polish film and music video cinematographer. He is best known for Crimson Tide (1995), Dark City (1998), the Pirates of the Caribbean film series, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), The Martian (2015) and All the Money in the World (2017).

Many of his ...

24. Don Burgess

Cinematographer | Forrest Gump

Don Burgess was born on May 28, 1956 in Santa Monica, California, USA. He is a cinematographer and actor, known for Forrest Gump (1994), Cast Away (2000) and Contact (1997). He has been married to Bonnie Ann Burgess since December 4, 1982. They have three children.

25. Jack N. Green

Cinematographer | Unforgiven

Jack N. Green was born on November 18, 1946 in San Francisco, California, USA. He is a cinematographer and director, known for Unforgiven (1992), The Bridges of Madison County (1995) and Serenity (2005).

26. Jeff Cronenweth

Cinematographer | Gone Girl

Jeff Cronenweth was born on January 14, 1962 in Los Angeles County, California, USA. He is a cinematographer and director, known for Gone Girl (2014), The Social Network (2010) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011).

27. Matthew Libatique

Cinematographer | Black Swan

Matthew Libatique is an American cinematographer. He is best known for his work with director Darren Aronofsky on the films Pi (1998), Requiem for a Dream (2000), The Fountain (2006), Black Swan (2010), Noah (2014) and Mother! (2017). He also shot Bradley Cooper's directorial debut film, A Star Is ...

28. Winton C. Hoch

Cinematographer | The Quiet Man

Winton C. Hoch was born on July 31, 1905 in Storm Lake, Iowa, USA. He was a cinematographer, known for The Quiet Man (1952), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964) and The Searchers (1956). He died on March 20, 1979 in Santa Monica, California, USA.

29. Harry Stradling Sr.

Cinematographer | My Fair Lady

Multi-Academy Award-nominated cinematographer (13 in all), Harry Stradling was unique in that he established his reputation both in America and in Europe. He was the nephew of Mary Pickford's cameraman Walter Stradling, who provided the connections for his first job in Hollywood. Walter died in ...

30. John Schwartzman

Cinematographer | Seabiscuit

John Schwartzman was born on October 18, 1960 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is a cinematographer and actor, known for Seabiscuit (2003), Pearl Harbor (2001) and Armageddon (1998).

31. Robert Surtees

Cinematographer | Ben-Hur

Robert L. Surtees began his working life as a portrait photographer and retoucher, before becoming camera assistant at Universal in 1927. He spent a lengthy apprenticeship (15 years) working under such experienced cinematographers as Hal Mohr, Joseph Ruttenberg and Gregg Toland. Between 1929 and ...

32. Russell Carpenter

Cinematographer | Avatar: The Way of Water

Russell Carpenter was born on December 9, 1950 in Van Nuys, California, USA. He is a cinematographer and producer, known for Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), Titanic (1997) and Ant-Man (2015).

33. Ernest Haller

Cinematographer | Gone with the Wind

Distinguished American cinematographer Ernest Haller started in the industry in 1914 as an actor with Biograph after leaving his first job as a bank clerk. Within one year he discovered his true calling: being on the other side of the camera. By 1920, he had become a full director of photography ...

34. Guillermo Navarro

Cinematographer | El laberinto del fauno

Guillermo Navarro was born in 1955 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico. He is a cinematographer and director, known for Pan's Labyrinth (2006), Cronos (1992) and I Am Number Four (2011).

35. Vilmos Zsigmond

Cinematographer | The Black Dahlia

Along with László Kovács, a fellow student who fled Hungary in 1956, Zsigmond rose to prominence in the 1970s. He is known for his use of natural light and vivid use of color on features such as The Long Goodbye (1973) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).

36. Dante Spinotti

Cinematographer | L.A. Confidential

Dante Spinotti was born in Tolmezzo, Udine, in the northeastern Italian Region of Friuli. He began his career at RAI (Italian TV), before that he spent lot of time in Kenia as cinematographer for his uncle. In 1985, producer Dino De Laurentiis offered him a chance to work in USA for the first time ...

37. Adrian Biddle

Cinematographer | V for Vendetta

Adrian Biddle was born on July 20, 1952 in Woolwich, London, England, UK. He was a cinematographer, known for V for Vendetta (2005), Thelma & Louise (1991) and 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992). He was married to Mo. He died on December 7, 2005 in London, England, UK.

38. Steven Soderbergh

Director | Sex, Lies, and Videotape

Steven Andrew Soderbergh was born on January 14, 1963 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, the second of six children of Mary Ann (Bernard) and Peter Soderbergh. His father was of Swedish and Irish descent, and his mother was of Italian ancestry. While he was still at a very young age, his family moved to ...

aka Peter Andrews

39. Vittorio Storaro

Cinematographer | Apocalypse Now

Vittorio Storaro, the award-winning cinematographer who won Oscars for "Apocalypse Now (1979)", "Reds (1981)" and "The Last Emperor (1987)". He was born on June 24, 1940 in Rome, where his father was a projectionist at the Lux Film Studio. At the age of 11, he began studying photography at a ...

40. Darius Khondji

Cinematographer | Amour

Darius Khondji was born on October 21, 1955 in Tehran, Iran. He is a cinematographer and actor, known for Amour (2012), Se7en (1995) and Delicatessen (1991). He is married to Marianne Khondji. They have three children.

41. Christopher Doyle

Cinematographer | Paranoid Park

Christopher Doyle was born on May 2, 1952 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is a cinematographer and actor, known for Paranoid Park (2007), Hero (2002) and 2046 (2004).

42. Gordon Willis

Cinematographer | Zelig

Gordon Willis was an American cinematographer. He's best known for his work on Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather films, as well asWoody Allen's Annie Hall (1977) and Manhattan (1979).

His work on the first two Godfather films turned out to be groundbreaking in its use of low-light photography and ...