Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Mike Nichols, 1966
Cinematography | Haskell Wexler

Cinema is many things, but it is a visual medium. The Cinematographer weaves magic of light, composition, perspective and frames which capture the vision of the film’s director. Here are a few of my favorite cinematography moments. There are other cinematic moments that are better and equally loved, but this are a few that came into my mind…

8½ Federico Fellini, 1963 Cinematography | Gianni Di Venanzo

“Fate is written in the face.” — Federico Fellini

8½ Federico Fellini, 1963 Cinematography | Gianni Di Venanzo

“Our job isn’t to recreate reality, our job is to represent reality.” — Gordon Willis

Klute Alan J. Pakula, 1971 Cinematography | Gordon Willis

Manhattan Woody Allen, 1979 Cinematography | Gordon Willis

September 30, 1955 James Bridges, 1977 Cinematography | Gordon Willis

“The idea is to find the space and then to light it in such a way that the actors can go wherever they like, and then to respond to what the actors have done. Only at that point are the final frames decided upon. So it can be very spontaneous.” — Sean Bobbitt

Shame Steve McQueen, 2011 Cinematography | Sean Bobbitt

12 Years A Slave Steve McQueen, 2013 Cinematography | Sean Bobbitt

Hunger Steve McQueen, 2008 Cinematography | Sean Bobbitt

” When we came to film Persona, we virtually discarded the medium shot. We went from wide shots to close-ups and vice versa. Ingmar had seen a certain resemblance between Liv Ullman and Bibi Andersson, and the idea had dawned of making a film about identification between two people who come close together and start to think the same thoughts. The film gave me the opportunity to explore my fascination with the face…” — Sven Nykvist

Persona Ingmar Bergman, 1966 Cinematography | Sven Nykvist

Persona Ingmar Bergman, 1966 Cinematography | Sven Nykvist

Persona Ingmar Bergman, 1966 Cinematography | Sven Nykvist

Persona Ingmar Bergman, 1966 Cinematography | Sven Nykvist

“For me, movies should be visual. If you want dialogue, you should read a book.”

Vilmos Zsigmond

The Rose Mark Rydell, 1979 Cinematography | Vilmos Zsigmond

Mark Rydell told Zsigmond that The Rose should “look like an abdominal operation.” — Noel Murray of The Dissolve

The Rose Mark Rydell, 1979 Cinematography | Vilmos Zsigmond

The Rose Mark Rydell, 1979 Cinematography | Vilmos Zsigmond

The Rose Mark Rydell, 1979 Cinematography | Vilmos Zsigmond

Vivre Sa Vie Jean-Luc Godard, 1962 Cinematography | Raoul Coutard

“Photography is truth. The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second.”

Jean-Luc Godard

Vivre Sa Vie Jean-Luc Godard, 1962 Cinematography | Raoul Coutard

“A film on prostitution about a pretty Paris shopgirl who sells her body but keeps her soul while going through a series of adventures that allow her to experience all possible deep human emotions, and that were filmed by Jean-Luc Godard and portrayed by Anna Karina. Vivre sa vie.” — Jean-Luc Godard

Vivre Sa Vie Jean-Luc Godard, 1962 Cinematography | Raoul Coutard

“The more one talks, the less the words mean.” — Vivre Sa Vie

Invisible Waves
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, 2006
Cinematography | Christopher Doyle

“I think the point of cinematography, of what we do, is intimacy. Is intent, is the balance between the familiar and the dream, it is being subjective and objective, it is being engaged and yet standing back and noticing something that perhaps other people didn’t notice before, or celebrating something that you feel is beautiful or valid, or true or engaging in some way.” — Christopher Doyle

Happy Together Kar-wai Wong, 1997 Cinematography | Christopher Doyle

Dumplings Fruit Chan, 2004 Cinematography | Christopher Doyle

“There’s always a shot or a moment you missed; it informs your work rather than takes from it.” — Christopher Doyle

Away With Words
Christopher Doyle, 1999

A Woman Under the Influence John Cassavetes, 1974 Cinematography | Al Ruban

“Mabel is not crazy, she’s unusual. She’s not crazy, so don’t say she’s crazy.” — A Woman Under The Influence

Bronson Nicolas Winding Rein, 2008 Cinematography | Larry Smith

“I’m colorblind, I can’t see mid-colors. That’s why all my films are very contrasted, if it were anything else I couldn’t see it.” — Nicolas Winding Refn

Only God Forgives Nicolas Winding Rein, 2013 Cinematography | Larry Smith

Calvary John Michael McDonagh, 2014 Cinematography | Larry Smith

“I shot much of the film with a handheld Arriflex with a very wide lens and a tiny tobacco tin on the front fitted with a wee bulb to add a bit of fill, just enough to see Catherine Deneuve’s skin in the shadows until I moved in close.” — Gilbert Taylor

Repulsion Roman Polanski, 1965 Cinematography | Gilbert Taylor

Repulsion Roman Polanski, 1965 Cinematography | Gilbert Taylor

“I believe the look of the picture is inherent in the material. The material will tell you what the picture should look like. Roman [Polanski] took the audience and led them by the nose to a point, then he left it up to you, and let the audience run with their imagination.” — William A. Fraker

Rosemary’s Baby Roman Polanski, 1968 Cinematography | William A. Fraker

Rosemary’s Baby Roman Polanski, 1968 Cinematography | William A. Fraker

“Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater.”
Roman Polanski

Rosemary’s Baby Roman Polanski, 1968 Cinematography | William A. Fraker

“I love my work. It’s a passion because otherwise you can’t do it.” — Benoît Debie

Irreversible Gaspar Noé, 2002 Cinematography | Benoît Debie

“When you see a movie, it’s like you’re attending a show of magic in which the magician pulls a rabbit out of a hat.”
Gaspar Noe

Enter The Void Gaspar Noé, 2009 Cinematography | Benoît Debie

Spring Breakers Harmony Korine, 2012 Cinematography | Benoît Debie

Love Gaspar Noé, 2015 Cinematography | Benoît Debie

“You make the movie through the cinematography – it sounds quite a simple idea, but it was like a huge revelation to me.”
Nicolas Roeg

Don’t Look Now Nicolas Roeg, 1973 Cinematography | Anthony B. Richmond

Don’t Look Now Nicolas Roeg, 1973 Cinematography | Anthony B. Richmond

“I think a cinematographer’s job is to put a director’s vision on the screen. Nic is very clear in his vision and how he wants a movie to look, to feel, to smell.” — Anthony B. Richmond

Don’t Look Now Nicolas Roeg, 1973 Cinematography | Anthony B. Richmond

“During the minutes or seconds that this fleeting image is on the screen, you have to enable the viewer to see and especially to experience that there is a very rapid emotional shock. So the lighting has to be designed in such a way that its form can pierce through the screen and travel like an arrow into the viewer’s mind.” — Henri Alekan

Wings of Desire Wim Wenders, 1987 Cinematography | Henri Alekan

Wings of Desire Wim Wenders, 1987 Cinematography | Henri Alekan

Wings of Desire Wim Wenders, 1987 Cinematography | Henri Alekan

“The beautiful thing about Robby is that he starts the process by talking to you about what the film means, what the story is about, what the characters are about. He starts from the inside out, which is really, really such a great way.” — Jim Jarmusch

Down By Law Jim Jarmusch, 1986 Cinematography | Robby Müller

Paris Texas Wim Wenders, 1984 Cinematography | Robby Müller

Breaking the Waves Lars von Trier, 1996 Cinematography | Robby Müller

” I’ve had glasses since I was six. Back then, I’d wake up in the morning and do things without my glasses on, and I’d be pretty blind. I’m very comfortable getting up close to things. There’s a sense of discovery that comes with that and it’s something I’m really interested in in my work.”  — Ashley Connor

Butter on the Latch Josephine Decker, 2013 Cinematography | Ashley Connor

Butter on the Latch Josephine Decker, 2013 Cinematography | Ashley Connor

Thou Wast Mild and Lovely Josephine Decker, 2014 Cinematography | Ashley Connor

Barry Lyndon Stanley Kubrick, 1975 Cinematography | John Alcott

Barry Lyndon Stanley Kubrick, 1975 Cinematography | John Alcott

“Our working relationship is close because we think exactly alike photographically. We really do see eye-to-eye photographically.” — John Alcott

A Clockwork Orange Stanley Kubrick, 1971 Cinematography | John Alcott

“Style is something that’s extremely important, but it must grow naturally out of who and what you are and what the material calls for. It cannot be superimposed.”
William Friedkin

The Exorcist William Friedkin, 1973 Cinematography | Owen Roizman

“The camera lies all the time — lies 24 times/second.”
Brian De Palma

Dressed to Kill Brian De Palma, 1980 Cinematography | Ralf D. Bode

Dressed to Kill Brian De Palma, 1980 Cinematography | Ralf D. Bode

Dressed to Kill
Brian De Palma, 1980
Cinematography | Ralf D. Bode

” It’s very pleasant to hear that because my conception of this job is to be a companion or a collaborator. It’s to complete something. It is also making the image as separate from the directing but to be part of the storytelling process. If you have some distance with the film you are watching, you’ll be just attracted. You’ll be swimming in it. Or enveloped, like music” — Agnes Godard

Beau Travail Claire Denis, 1999 Cinematography | Agnès Godard

Trouble Every Day Claire Denis, 2001 Cinematography | Agnès Godard

The Intruder Claire Denis, 2004 Cinematography | Agnès Godard

“Photographing Citizen Kane was indeed the most exciting professional adventure of my career.” — Gregg Toland

Citizen Kane Orson Welles, 1941 Cinematography | Gregg Toland

“The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.”
Orson Welles

Citizen Kane Orson Welles, 1941 Cinematography | Gregg Toland

“Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.”
Ingmar Bergman

Persona Ingmar Bergman, 1966 Cinematography | Sven Nykvist

Cinematic images are the things of magic.

Matty Stanfield, 1.6.2016