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Painting with light / John Alton ; introduction by Todd McCarthy.

By: Material type: TextTextPublication details: Berkeley ; London : University of California Press, c1995.Description: xli, 191 p. : ill., ports. ; 26 cmISBN:
  • 0520089499 (pbk)
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 778.5 ALT
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode
Standard Loan LSAD Library Main Collection 778.5 ALT (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 39002000201369

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Few cinematographers have had as decisive an impact on the cinematic medium as John Alton. Best known for his highly stylized film noir classics T-Men , He Walked by Night , and The Big Combo , Alton earned a reputation during the 1940s and 1950s as one of Hollywood's consummate craftsmen through his visual signature of crisp shadows and sculpted beams of light. No less renowned for his virtuoso color cinematography and deft appropriation of widescreen and Technicolor, he earned an Academy Award in 1951 for his work on the musical An American in Paris . First published in 1949, and long out of print since then, Painting With Light remains one of the few truly canonical statements on the art of motion picture photography, an unrivalled historical document on the workings of the postwar, American cinema. In simple, non-technical language, Alton explains the job of the cinematographer and explores how lighting, camera techniques, and choice of locations determine the visual mood of film. Todd McCarthy's introduction, written especially for this edition, provides an overview of Alton's biography and career and explores the influence of his work on contemporary cinematography.

Filmography: pxxxv-xxxix.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

John Alton (born 1901) was one of the most renowned cinematographers of the postwar American cinema. In 1951 he won an Academy Award for his color photography of An American in Paris . He lives in Los Angeles. Todd McCarthy is chief film critic of Variety , co-editor of the King of Bs (1975), and writer and co-director of the award winning documentary, Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography (1992).

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