Janusz Kaminski

Cinematographer

“You can only light well for one camera angle, maybe 15 degrees. The way Steven (Spielberg) moves the camera leads to many compromises on my part, but I love it. That’s why I’m making films instead of taking stills.”

Biography

In the United States from 1981, Polish-born Janusz Kaminski graduated from Columbia College, and thereafter recieved a BA in Film from the AFI. His debut as a cinematographer occurred with 1988’s Lisa, which won him the Line Eagel Award at the Illinois Film Festival. Kaminski’s Hollywood career was largely confined to programmers like Terror Within II until the early 1990s. In 1993, Janusz Kaminski won the Academy Award for his eloquent black-and-white photography for Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List (1993), filmed in Kaminski’s native Poland. He has since continued working with Spielberg on The Lost World: Jurrasic Park II (1997), Amistad, which garnered Kaminski an Oscar nomination, and most notably, Saving Private Ryan. —allmovie guide