The 30 Greatest Cinematographers in Movie History
by MovieFreak2403 | created - 20 Mar 2017 | updated - 20 Mar 2017 | PublicThis is alphabetical ordered list from the TASTEOFCINEMA.com made by Carolina Starzynski. I will point out the three most important movies per cinematographer.
PS I also made a few changes in the choices of cinemtographers
1. 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 - 1971 Barry Lyndon - 1975 The Shining - 1980
2. Néstor Almendros
Cinematographer | Days of Heaven
One of the highest appraised contemporary cinematographers. He was born in Spain but moved to Cuba by age 18 to join his exiled anti-Franco father. In Havana, he founded a cineclub and wrote film reviews. Then, he went on to study in Rome at the Centro Sperimentale. He directed six shorts in Cuba ...
Days of Heaven - 1978 Kramer vs. Kramer - 1979 Sophie's Choice - 1982
3. Robert Burks
Cinematographer | Vertigo
The favorite cinematographer of legendary director Alfred Hitchcock began working at Warner Bros. when he was 19 years old. He climbed his way up from camera operator to assistant camera man and eventually took over the Special Photographic Effects unit at Warners on Stage 5 in 1944. He became an ...
Strangers on a Train - 1951 Rear Window - 1954 Vertigo - 1958
4. Jack Cardiff
Cinematographer | Black Narcissus
Almost universally considered one of the greatest cinematographers of all time, Jack Cardiff was also a notable director. He described his childhood as very happy and his parents as quite loving. They performed in music hall as comedians, so he grew up with the fun that came with their theatrical ...
Black Narcissus - 1947 The Red Shoes - 1948 War and Peace - 1956
5. Michael Chapman
Cinematographer | Raging Bull
Michael Chapman is an American cinematographer. He is best known for Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The Fugitive (1993), and Primal Fear (1996).
Chapman began his film career as a camera operator before making the leap to cinematographer. As a cinematographer, he became famous for his two ...
Taxi Driver - 1976 Raging Bull - 1980 The Fugitive - 1993
6. 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.
Breathless - 1960 A Woman Is a Woman - 1961 Alphaville - 1965
7. 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 Shawshank Redemption - 1994 O Brother, Where Art Thou? - 2000 The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford - 2007
8. 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 - 1966 Once Upon a Time in the West - 1968 Once Upon a Time in America - 1984
9. 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).
In the Mood for Love - 2000 Hero - 2002 2046 - 2004
10. Gunnar Fischer
Cinematographer | Smultronstället
Gunnar Fischer was born on November 18, 1910 in Ljungby, Sweden. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Wild Strawberries (1957), The Seventh Seal (1957) and Smiles of a Summer Night (1955). He was married to Gull Söderblom. He died on June 11, 2011 in Stockholm, Stockholms län, Sweden.
Smiles of a Summer Night - 1955 The Seventh Seal - 1957 Wild Strawberries - 1957
11. 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 ...
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - 1969 American Beauty - 1999 Road to Perdition - 2002
12. 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 ...
The Rose Tattoo - 1955 Sweet Smell of Success - 1957 Hud - 1963
13. Slawomir Idziak
Cinematographer | Trois couleurs: Bleu
Slawomir Idziak was born on January 25, 1945 in Katowice, Slaskie, Poland. He is a cinematographer and writer, known for Three Colors: Blue (1993), Black Hawk Down (2001) and Gattaca (1997). He was previously married to Maria Gladkowska.
The Double Life of Veronique - 1991 Three Colors: Blue - 1993 Black Hawk Down - 2001
14. Janusz Kaminski
Cinematographer | War Horse
Janusz Kaminski is a Polish cinematographer and film director. He has established a partnership with Steven Spielberg, working as a cinematographer on his movies since 1993. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Schindler's List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998).
His ...
Schindler's List - 1993 Saving Private Ryan - 1998 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - 2007
15. 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.
Delicatessen - 1991 The City of Lost Children - 1995 Se7en - 1995
16. 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 ...
The New World - 2005 The Tree of Life - 2011 The Revenant - 2015
17. Kazuo Miyagawa
Cinematographer | Yôjinbô
Kazuo Miyagawa was born on February 25, 1908 in Kyoto, Japan. He was a cinematographer, known for Yojimbo (1961), Rashomon (1950) and Brother (1960). He was married to Kazuko ?. He died on August 7, 1999 in Tokyo, Japan.
Rashomon - 1950 Ugetsu - 1953 Yojimbo - 1961
18. 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 - 1984 Breaking the Waves - 1996 Dancer in the Dark - 2000
19. 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 - 1966 Cries & Whispers - 1972 Fanny and Alexander - 1982
20. 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 ...
The Aviator - 2004 Shutter Island - 2010 Hugo - 2011
21. Witold Sobocinski
Cinematographer | Frantic
Witold Sobocinski is a Polish cinematographer, academic teacher as well as former jazz musician.
As a cinematographer he is best known for The Promised Land (1975) and Frantic (1988).
Sobocinski cooperated with several notable directors, including Andrzej Wajda, Krzysztof Zanussi and Roman Polanski.
...
The Third Part of the Night - 1971 The Hourglass Sanatorium - 1973 The Promised Land - 1975
22. 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 - 1970 Apocalypse Now - 1979 The Last Emperor - 1987
23. 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 ...
Wuthering Heights - 1939 The Grapes of Wrath - 1940 Citizen Kane - 1941
24. Geoffrey Unsworth
Cinematographer | Cabaret
Goeffrey Unsworth was one of the great cinematographers of the 20th Century, the winner of two Oscars, five BAFTA awards, and three awards from the British Society of Cinematographers for his work as a director of photography. Born in 1914 in Lancashire, England, Unsworth started in the industry in...
2001: A Space Odyssey - 1968 Cabaret - 1972 Tess - 1979
25. 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 Forty-First - 1956 The Cranes Are Flying - 1957 I Am Cuba - 1964
26. Haskell Wexler
Cinematographer | Medium Cool
Two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler was adjudged one of the ten most influential cinematographers in movie history, according to an International Cinematographers Guild survey of its membership. He won his Oscars in both black & white and color, for Who's Afraid of ...
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - 1966 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - 1975 Bound for Glory - 1976
27. 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 ...
The Godfather: Part II - 1974 Manhattan - 1979 The Godfather: Part III - 1990
28. 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 - 1962 Doctor Zhivago - 1965 Ryan's Daughter - 1970
29. Vadim Yusov
Cinematographer | Solyaris
Vadim Yusov was born on April 20, 1929 in Klavdino, Leningrad Oblast, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia]. He was a cinematographer and writer, known for Solaris (1972), The Black Monk (1988) and Pasport (1990). He was married to Inna Zelentsova. He died on August 23, 2013 in Moscow, Russia.
Ivan's Childhood - 1962 Andrey Rublev - 1966 Solaris - 1972
30. Vilmos Zsigmond
Cinematographer | The Black Dahlia
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 & Mrs. Miller - 1971 Close Encounters of the Third Kind - 1977 The Deer Hunter - 1978
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