Andrzej Bartkowiak

Trained at the Polish Film School in his native Lodz, director of photography Andrzej Bartkowiak immigrated to the USA in 1972 and shortly after began working in commercials. He made his feature debut as cinematographer on "Deadly Hero" (1976) but did not register with the public until his gritty lensing of more than 100 Manhattan locations for "Prince of the City" (1981), his first collaboration with Sidney Lumet and the second of the director's movies exploring corruption within the NYC police department. As Lumet's director or photography of choice, Bartkowiak worked on 10 of the director's next 11 films over the next 12 years. During this collaboration, he established a reputation for his urban compositions, peaking perhaps with the stark texture of "Q & A" (1990), as close an approximation of black-and-white as a color film can be. He also excelled when asked to bring his camera indoors, earning plaudits for the slick look of "Deathtrap" and solving the riddle of what the director desired for "The Verdict" (both 1982). Lumet wanted as "old" a look as possible, drawing inspiration from a book of Carravaggio's paintings, and Bartkowiak pinpointed what the director had in mind as chiaroscuro and went about providing its strong light source, almost always from the side, countered on the opposite side by no soft fill light, only shadows.