My Favorite Cinematographers
by LeandroCopperfield | created - 30 Oct 2016 | updated - 13 Jul 2021 | Public
1. Vilmos Zsigmond
Cinematographer | Close Encounters of the Third Kind
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).
2. 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 ...
Goodfellas, The Color of Money, After Hours, The Departed, Gangs of New York, The Age of Innocence, The Last Temptation of Christ, Quiz Show, What About Bob? , Baby It's You
3. 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 ...
Casino, JFK, Scorsese, Tarantino, Oliver Stone...
4. 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 ...
5. Tak Fujimoto
Cinematographer | The Silence of the Lambs
Tak Fujimoto was born on July 12, 1939 in San Diego, California, USA. He is a cinematographer and actor, known for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), The Sixth Sense (1999) and Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).
6. 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 (...
The Coen Bros.
7. Stephen H. Burum
Cinematographer | The Untouchables
Stephen H. Burum was born on November 25, 1939 in Visalia, California, USA. He is a cinematographer, known for The Untouchables (1987), The War of the Roses (1989) and Mission: Impossible (1996).
Snake Eyes, Carlito's Way, Body Double, Mission: Impossible, The Untouchables, Raising Cain, The War of the Roses, Rumble Fish, Something Wicked This Way Comes.
8. 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 ...
American Beauty, Road to Perdition, Cool Hand Luke, In Cold Blood, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Day of the Locust, Marathon Man, A Civil Action.
9. Michael Chapman
Producer | The Bill
Michael Chapman was born in 1937. She was a producer and writer, known for The Bill (1984), Public Eye (1965) and Van der Valk (1972). She died on December 16, 2022.
Taxi Driver, Raging Bull
10. 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 ...
11. John Alcott
Cinematographer | Barry Lyndon
John Alcott, the Oscar-winning cinematographer best known for his collaboration with director Stanley Kubrick, was born in 1931, in Isleworth, England, the son of movie executive Arthur Alcott, who would become the production controller at Gainsborough Studios during the 1940s.
Alcott began his film...
Barry Lyndon, A Clockwork Orange, The Shinning
12. Chung-hoon Chung
Cinematographer | Ah-ga-ssi
Chung-hoon Chung was born on June 15, 1970 in Seoul, South Korea. He is a cinematographer and writer, known for The Handmaiden (2016), Oldboy (2003) and Last Night in Soho (2021).
13. 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 ...
L.A. Confidential, Wonder Boys, Heat, The Insider, Manhunter
14. 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 ...
15. 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).
...
21 Grams, Amores Perros, 25th Hour, 8 Mile, The Wolf of Wall Street,
16. Benoît Debie
Cinematographer | Enter the Void
Benoît Debie is known for Enter the Void (2009), Climax (2018) and Spring Breakers (2012).
Gaspar Noé.
17. Russell Boyd
Cinematographer | Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Russell Boyd was born on April 21, 1944 in Victoria, Australia. He is a cinematographer and director, known for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) and Gallipoli (1981).
White Men Can't Jump, Liar Liar,
18. Peter Deming
Cinematographer | Mulholland Dr.
Peter Deming was born in Beirut, Lebanon. He is a cinematographer and actor, known for Mulholland Drive (2001), The Menu (2022) and The Continental (2023).
Mulholland Dr., Lost Highway, Lucky You, I Heart Huckabees, My Cousin Vinny
19. Tonino Delli Colli
Cinematographer | Der Name der Rose
Tonino Delli Colli was born on November 20, 1922 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a cinematographer and actor, known for The Name of the Rose (1986), Life Is Beautiful (1997) and Once Upon a Time in America (1984). He was married to Alexandra Delli Colli. He died on August 16, 2005 in Rome, Lazio, ...
20. 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 ...
The Graduate, The Sting, The Last Picture Show
21. John A. Alonzo
Cinematographer | Chinatown
John A. Alonzo was born on June 12, 1934 in Dallas, Texas, USA. He was a cinematographer and actor, known for Chinatown (1974), The Magnificent Seven (1960) and Star Trek: Generations (1994). He was married to Suzanne L. Heltzel and Jan Murray. He died on March 13, 2001 in Beverly Hills, California...
Chinatown, The Furtune, Scarface, Vanishing Point, Harold and Maude
22. Andrzej Sekula
Cinematographer | Pulp Fiction
Andrzej Sekula was born in Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland. He is a cinematographer and director, known for Pulp Fiction (1994), American Psycho (2000) and Reservoir Dogs (1992).
23. James Wong Howe
Cinematographer | The Thin Man
Master cinematographer James Wong Howe, whose career stretched from silent pictures through the mid-'70s, was born Wong Tung Jim in Canton (now Guangzhou), China, on August 28, 1899, the son of Wong How. His father emigrated to America the year James was born, settling in Pasco, Washington, where ...
24. Owen Roizman
Cinematographer | The French Connection
Ace cinematographer Owen Roizman was born September 22, 1936, in Brooklyn, New York. His father Sol was a cinematographer for Fox Movietone News and his uncle Morrie Roizman was a film editor. Owen studied math and physics at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. He began his career shooting TV ...
25. Ted D. McCord
Cinematographer | The Sound of Music
Ted McCord learned his craft "on the job" as a camera assistant at Hobart Bosworth Productions in 1917. His first credited film as full-fledged cinematographer was Sacred and Profane Love (1921), billing himself as "T.D.McCord". During the '20s he worked on a wide variety of subjects, from romantic...
26. Robert D. Yeoman
Cinematographer | The Grand Budapest Hotel
Robert D. Yeoman was born on March 10, 1951 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He is a cinematographer and actor, known for The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), Asteroid City (2023) and Moonrise Kingdom (2012).
THE WIZARD, bunch of Wes Andersons films.
27. 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 ...
28. 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.
29. 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.
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