~ 50 Great Cinematographers ~

[MysteRy]

5 - Freddie Young



One of Britain’s most influential directors of photography, Young found most acclaim working with director David Lean on Lawrence Of Arabia (1962), Doctor Zhivago (1965) and Ryan’s Daughter (1970).

He nabbed Oscars for all three.

Greatest Achievement:Lawrence Of Arabia was his breakthrough, and still looks stunning to this day.

[MysteRy]

4 - Kazuo Miyagawa



Famous for his work with Japanese directors Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu, and Kenji Mizoguchi, Miyagawa was responsible for giving Japanese cinema its distinct look.

Among his inventions were using black water for rain (it looked better on camera) and the use of mirrors to capture natural light.

Greatest Achievement:Rashomon (1950), with which Miyagawa had the gall to become the first filmmaker to point a camera directly into the sun.

[MysteRy]

3 - Gregg Toland



Though he tragically died aged just 44, Toland made an indelible mark on the cinematic landscape that saw him nominated for five Oscars over a period of just seven years.

He’d win the gong for William Wyler’s 1939 adaptation of Wuthering Heights.

Greatest Achievement:Citizen Kane (1941) had him perfecting deep focus photography, which meant that characters in both the foreground and background were simultaneously in focus.

Many of Kane’s finest shots were also Toland’s doing, though they’ve often been miscredited to Orson Welles.

[MysteRy]

2 - Jack Cardiff



A pioneer in the field of cinematography, Cardiff’s career spanned the silent era and the advent of Technicolor.

His big break came when he worked as a cameraman with Powell & Pressburger on The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp, which got him promoted to cinematographer on A Matter Of Life And Death.

Greatest Achievement: The Red Shoes (1948), obviously, with its startlingly vivid imagery.

[MysteRy]

1 - Gunnar Fischer



A frequent collaborator of Ingmar Bergman’s, Fischer was responsible for shooting some of the Swedish director’s finest films, among them Wild Strawberries (1957), The Magician (1959) and, of course, The Seventh Seal (1957).

“Fischer's great skill was in monochrome,” says film historian Peter Cowie. “He gave Bergman's films that unique expressionist look, with their brilliant contrasts in every gradation of black and white.”

Greatest Achievement: The Seventh Seal, which includes that infamous scene of a knight playing chess with Death on a beach.

Fischer shot the scene so that the sea was dark and tormented behind them.

Photo: Ingmar Bergman and Gunnar Fischer on the set of Summer with Monika, 1953.