Cinematographers: Masters of Light
by sudorum | created - 21 Jan 2015 | updated - 26 Aug 2019 | PublicMy favorite cinematographers.
1. 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 ...
The Conformist, Apocalypse Now
2. 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, ...
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Once Upon A Time in the West
3. 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).
Chungking Express, Fallen Angels
4. Raoul Coutard
Director | Hoa-Binh
Raoul Coutard was born on September 16, 1924 in Paris, France. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Hoa Binh (1970), Alphaville (1965) and Z (1969). He died on November 8, 2016 in Labenne, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France.
Contempt, Weekend
5. 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 ...
Citizen Kane
6. 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 ...
Children of Men, Birdman
7. 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...
A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon
8. 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 (...
No Country For Old Men, The Shawshank Redemption
9. Robby Müller
Cinematographer | Breaking the Waves
Robby Müller was born on April 4, 1940 in Willemstad, Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles. He was a cinematographer and actor, known for Breaking the Waves (1996), Paris, Texas (1984) and Repo Man (1984). He died on July 3, 2018 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands.
"Paris, Texas," The American Friend, Dead Man
10. 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 ...
There Will Be Blood, Nightcrawler
11. Sacha Vierny
Cinematographer | The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
Sacha Vierny was born on August 10, 1919 in Bois-le-Roi, Seine-et-Marne, France. He was a cinematographer and assistant director, known for The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (1989), The Pillow Book (1995) and Belle de Jour (1967). He died on May 15, 2001 in Vannes, Morbihan, France.
"The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover," Night and Fog
12. Gianni Di Venanzo
Cinematographer | 8½
Gianni Di Venanzo was born on December 18, 1920 in Teramo, Abruzzo, Italy. He was a cinematographer, known for 8½ (1963), The Girlfriends (1955) and Juliet of the Spirits (1965). He died on February 3, 1966 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
Salvatore Giuliano, 8 1/2
13. Sven Nykvist
Cinematographer | The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Sven Nykvist was considered by many in the industry to be one of the world's greatest cinematographers. During his long career that spanned almost half a century, Nyvist perfected the art of cinematography to its most simple attributes, and he helped give the films he had worked on the simplest and...
Persona, Hour of the Wolf
14. 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 ...
Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago
15. 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).
Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel
16. 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).
McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Deliverance
17. Benoît Debie
Cinematographer | Enter the Void
Benoît Debie is known for Enter the Void (2009), Climax (2018) and Spring Breakers (2012).
Spring Breakers, Irreversible
18. Sergey Urusevskiy
Cinematographer | Kavalier zolotoy zvezdy
Sergei Urusevsky is an Soviet cinematographer best known for his work on the films of the Mikhail Kalatozov.
He started as a painter and photographer studying under the great graphic artist Vladimir Favorsky at the Institute of Fine Art in Moscow. Bringing a pictorial tradition to cinema, Urusevsky ...
The Cranes Are Flying, Soy Cuba
19. 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 ...
Inglourious Basterds, The Aviator
20. 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, After Hours
Tell Your Friends