Spend enough years behind a camera, and you pick up more than lenses and lighting. You learn how scenes are built, how actors get blocked, and how a director’s idea turns into an image. It’s not surprising that some of the best camera operators in film history eventually asked to run the whole show.
Their results vary. Some became bankable studio directors, others made one personal project and went back to the camera, and a few earned real critical respect. Here are eight cinematographers who made the jump, along with what they directed.
Barry Sonnenfeld
Sonnenfeld first made his name as the cinematographer on early Coen brothers films, including Blood Simple, Raising Arizona and Miller’s Crossing. His visual style leaned on wide lenses and moving cameras, which gave those films a distinctive, slightly off kilter energy.
He moved into directing with The Addams Family in 1991. Men in Black followed in 1997 and became one of the defining sci fi comedies of that decade. His comic timing and visual sense carried over cleanly from his earlier work.
Jan de Bont
Dutch born Jan de Bont built his reputation shooting hard edged studio films. His credits include Die Hard, The Hunt for Red October and Basic Instinct, all of which show a knack for tension and clean, muscular imagery.
His directorial debut came with Speed in 1994, an action hit built around a bus that can’t slow down. He followed it with Twister in 1996. Both movies show a cinematographer’s eye for kinetic movement and physical spectacle.
Wally Pfister
Pfister became closely associated with Christopher Nolan, shooting films such as Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige and The Dark Knight. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for Inception, which cemented his standing among his peers.
He made his directorial debut with Transcendence in 2014, a science fiction drama starring Johnny Depp. The film received a mixed response, but it showed the visual polish you’d expect. Pfister has continued to work in directing, including on television.
Janusz Kamiński
Kamiński is best known as Steven Spielberg’s regular cinematographer. He won Oscars for Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan, and his desaturated, handheld look helped define how modern war and historical dramas are filmed.
He directed Lost Souls, a supernatural thriller released in 2000, and later made Hania, a Polish language drama. Neither became a major hit, though they gave him a chance to work outside Spielberg’s shadow. He remains better known for his camerawork.
Jack Cardiff
Cardiff was one of the great Technicolor cinematographers in British film. His work on Black Narcissus earned him an Oscar and is still held up as a landmark of color photography. He also shot The Red Shoes and The African Queen.
He turned to directing in the late 1950s, and Sons and Lovers (1960), adapted from D. H. Lawrence’s novel, brought him an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. Few cinematographers have been recognized by the Academy in both roles. That makes his case one of the most notable on this list.
Nicolas Roeg
Roeg began as a camera operator and cinematographer, with credits including Fahrenheit 451 and Far from the Madding Crowd. His eye for texture and light made him a sought after talent in 1960s British cinema.
He co directed Performance, then went solo with Walkabout in 1971 and Don’t Look Now in 1973. Those films are known for fragmented editing and a strong sense of place. Many critics consider Don’t Look Now one of the finest British thrillers ever made.
Haskell Wexler
Wexler was an American cinematographer who won Academy Awards for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Bound for Glory. He was also known for his political convictions, which shaped many of his projects.
His directing debut, Medium Cool, came out in 1969. It blended fiction with real footage shot around the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The film is still studied for how it mixed narrative drama with documentary immediacy.
Lajos Koltai
Hungarian cinematographer Lajos Koltai worked on several films with director István Szabó, and he shot Malèna and The Legend of 1900 for Giuseppe Tornatore. His camerawork on Malèna earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography.
He made his directing debut with Fateless in 2005, adapted from Imre Kertész’s novel about a teenager’s experience in Nazi concentration camps. Kertész wrote the screenplay himself. The film is a serious, carefully composed work that reflects Koltai’s background in visual storytelling.
