I like the work of:
Nestor Almendros, Geoffrey Unsworth, Robert Burkes, John Alcott, Conrad Hall
Robert Krasker, Freddie Young, Gordon Willis, Vittorio Storaro…
Hard to beat those already mentioned (especially Nykvist, Zsigmond, Almendros, Fields, Guffey, Hall, Toland, Willis)
I would also like to mention:
Rodrigo Prieto
Geoffrey Unsworth!!
My favorites and the works I loved
Janusz Kaminski – Schindler’s List, Schindler’s List, Catch Me If You Can, Minority Report, Artificial Intelligence: AI, Munich, War of the Worlds
Vilmos Zsigmond – The Black Dahlia, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Deer Hunter
Rodrigo Prieto – Amores perros, 21 Grams, Babel, Brokeback Mountain
Connie Hall – Tequila Sunrise, American Beauty, Road to Perdition
Gordon Willis – The Godfather, The Godfather II (need there be anything else?)
Darius Khondji – The Beach, Se7en
Vittorio Storaro – Apocalypse Now (Need there be another film?)
Robert Richardson – The Aviator, Kill Bill, Powder Keg, Casino, Platoon
Would like to add to the list:
Gunnar Fischer (early Bergman)
Subrata Mitra (early Satyajit Ray)
Would like to add to the list:
Gunnar Fischer (early Bergman)
Subrata Mitra (early Satyajit Ray)
oops! sorry for the double post.
I’m a huge fan of Robert Elswit, Roger Deakins, Emmanuel Lubezki, and Mr. Storaro
Has Haskell Wexler been mentioned? Matewan, Days of Heaven, Bound for Glory, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, American Graffiti, Medium Cool — a most important film, which he also directed — The Thomas Crown Affair, In the Heat of the Night, and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, among many others.
He is also the subject of a totally compelling documentary “Tell Them Who You Are,” by his son Mark, which is also about their rather difficult relationship; the film becomes their way of working through it. Wexler is no doubt a brilliant man, but something of a prick as well.
Yeah Haskell is great, I love the story about him working on “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, Richard Burton was quite apprehensive of Mike Nichols hiring Haskel because of his background as a documentary cameraman, Burton was “afraid” that the ‘naturalistic’ lighting would accentuate his pockmarks, and of course Haskel did get the job and ended up winning an academy award for his outstanding work on the film.
His stark, black-n-white ‘cinema vérité’ work on the dramatized documentary “The Savage Eye” (1960) is outstanding also – definitely worth checking out!
Whether coincidentally or not, I don’t think Bernardo Bertolucci or Wim Wenders have ever been quite the same without Vittorio Storaro and Robbie Muller respectively- those 2 cinematographers have done sterling work elsewhere too. But the #1 cinematographer for me is Miyagawa, best known and outstanding with Mizoguchi, eg Sansho the Bailiff, but also worked well with Kurosawa, Ichikawa, Ozu…
Nestor Almendros (Days of Heaven), Vittorio Storaro (Last Emperor, Last Tango in Paris, Apocalypse Now and Reds among some), Sven Nykvist (fanny and Alexander) and Jordan Scott Cronenweth (Blade Runner).
Sven Nykvist, Doyle, Raoul Courtard
Of living ones, I think Jon Jost is the most talented and visionary cinematographer I’ve seen.
Among the non-living, John Alton.
JACK CARDIF, FREDDIE FRANCIS, CHRISTOPHER DOYLE, JOHN ALTON, PETER PAU, SVEN NYKVIST, GREG TOLAND, JOSEF VON STERNBERG, DOUGLAS SLOCOMBE. STANLEY CORTEZ.
Mark LEE Ping-Bing (the vertical ray of the sun)
Gianni di Venanzo and Vittorio Storaro are real popular in the Italian cinema.
(I guess Di Venanzo’s best works are “L’Eclisse”, “8 1/2”, “Salvatore Giuliano”, “Juliet of the Spirits”, “Hands over the City”, while Storaro’s masterpieces are “Novecento” and “Apocalypse Now”)
There’s an interesting section in the latest Sight and Sound on cinematographers- questions put to current ones, and a selection of the all-time greats.
I didn’t see anyone mention Russell Metty, who worked with Sirk on all his big films, and lensed Touch of Evil as well. I would also add Lee Garmes ( Shanghai Express), Stanley Cortez (Magnificent Ambersons and Night of the Hunter), Sergei Urusevsky (The Cranes are Flying, The Letter Never Sent and I Am Cuba) and Edward Tisse, Eisenstein’s guy.
Scott, I forgot about RUSSELL METTY…He was great, i love his work on WRITTEN ON THE WIND.
Did I miss Nicholas Musuraca? Surely he’s in here somewhere. We couldn’t have had OUT OF THE PAST without him. And he did other good work in CAT PEOPLE &tc.
So many names, so important to the development of this most important aspect of movie making. there were and are persons of vision, each bringing their own style and interpretation to the Story. I will not forget the greats – Joseph Ruttenberg, Robert Surtees, Leon Shamroy, Lucien Ballard, Charles G Clarke, my friend Haskel Wexler, Jimmy Wong Howe, Freddie Young, Geoffrey Unsworth and most British Cinmatographers like Robert Krasker, Walter Lassaly, my friend Wolfgang Suschitsky not forgetting Jack Cardiff who worked in my country Jamaica. I learnt a lot from them. I am also glad to see Gianni di Venanzo mentioned as I think his was work was really great. What is wrong with being a documentary cameraman. It helps you to understand evreything in life.
Vittorio Storaro – my vote for the greatest ever – all his films are beautiful to look at
Sven Nykvist
Joseph August (Portrait of Jennie)
Jack Cardiff (Black Narcissus, Red Shoes)
Vilmos Zsigmond
Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon, Ugetsu)
Haskell Wexler
Eduard Tisse (Battleship Potemkin)
Bert Glennon (Scarlet Empress)
Geoffrey Unsworth (2001)
Freddie Young (Lawrence of Arabia)
Gregg Toland
Burnett Guffy (Bonnie and Clyde)
James Wong Howe
Raoul Cotard (Contempt)
Robert Burks (Vertigo for example)
Peter James (Black Robe)
Roger Deakins is the best cinematographer working today. The man’s work is inspiring.
The Prince of Darkness. Gordon Willis. All the Presidents Men. Great lighting. Very influential.
I agree with Christopher Doyle and Raoul Courtard. Sven Nykvist is great as well..
In terms of Hollywood— Janusz Kaminski for Saving Private Ryan, who also worked with Spielberg on Munich, and did The Diving Bell and Butterfly.
Vilmos Zsigmond for Heaven’s Gate among many other wonder achievements.
Gordon Willis for The Godfather movies, Annie Hall, and Interiors
Vittorio Storraro for Last Tango and Apocalypse Now
Lazlo Kovaks for Easy Rider
How could I leave off Robert Richardson? His use of strong overhead lighting in movies like JFK, Natural Born Killers. His beautiful work on The Aviator.
And Sven Nykvist, of course.
I’m sure this is obvious to everyone but me – but I do have a question: Can anyone tell me the exact difference between the term cinematographer, DOP, and camerman? Thanks!
This is a nice thread that gives some credit to the cinematographer. I’ve found that most people don’t even know what a cinematographer does let alone be able to name some of the greats. Obviously there are a lot of wonderful artists and craftsmen contributing to making a film however I think cinematography is a often ignored art and I think when listing the great filmmakers of cinema, I appreciate including the likes of Gordon Willis and Connie Hall. Their contributions to the art form are just as important as the directors, writers, editors, etc.
To briefly answer Grey Daisies question from a couple months ago, a director of photography is the same thing as a cinematographer. Some old schoolers will argue that the difference is that a director of photography doesn’t operate their own camera but that’s not necessarily a widely held belief and both terms are used interchangeably.
The term cameraman is an older term for a cinematographer and is not used as much by filmmakers today but that too is basically the same thing. I suppose today you could call a camera operator a cameraman but I don’t know if that actually happens. The only time I’ve heard the term used is by older DPs (similar to how the term dailies versus rushes are used).
ZAK FORSMAN
one of my absolute favs is ALWIN KUCHLER (Ratcatcher, Morvern Caller).