For me Cinematography began in FTII .. I was mesmerised by Tarkovsky.. Loved the Cinematography of Nestor Almendros, Sven Nyqvist , Subrata Mitra , .Films of G Aravindan, Ritwik Ghatak , Satyajit Ray , Guru Dutt , Balu Mahendra. I was obsessed to bring in realism in Lighting & Cinematography to the point that I was immature to be guided by the narrative and used to revel if I manage to light up a set in a realistic way…
Later on when I took to teaching my perspective changed ..I started focusing more on narrative as I had to listen to students scripts and give them thoughts and opinion on visualisation , Visual Rhythm & Lighting . Slowly I started getting guided and focussed more on emotion and narrative.. Much later I started liking VK Murthy and Guru Dutt work . I always used to love Ritwik Ghatak for his films & Cinematography in his films .
On the contemporary cinematographers I started liking Christopher Doyle a lot ..His Combination with Wong kar wai.. brought in a new language of Cinematography with lighting style , composition and camera movements . Even Vittorio Storaro & Emanuel Lubeski’s work I loved a lot
In the Indian context I like Santosh Sivan , PC Sreeram’s work . Of the newer generation I admire Tasaduq Hussain , Anay Goswami , Kadir's Cinematography in South India .. particularly his combination with Director Ram and of course Rajeev Ravi in combination with Anurag Kashyap
These mentions are just from my quick memory while writing this blogpost . I am still in the process of discovering many many talented Cinematographers ..
Cinematography should definitely serve the narrative and Cinema should be explored as a language of emotions
I am deeply thankful to all my students for their continuous support and encouraging me to be better teacher
Narayan Kumar
Cinematographer & Teacher
Comentarios