Cinematographer Larry Fong and Bob Fisher's arm, photograph © Chris J. Russo.
Legendary photographer, Douglas Kirkland has been shooting Eastman Kodak’s ON FILM ad campaign for the past 18 years, photographing a cinematographer a month for publications such as American Cinematographer. It is always a treasure to spend the day at Kirkland’s home studio and watch him at work with his subject and listen to the amazing stories of his subjects. This month, DP Larry Fong was in Kirkland’s studio, whose feature credits include 300 and Watchmen, the pilot and first season of the hit television show Lost, and music videos from artists such as REM, Prince, Van Halen, Shawn Colvin and the Indigo Girls to name a few. He is also an accomplished magician and kept us quite entertained even while he was in front of the camera.
After the photo shoot, journalist Bob Fisher, interviewed Fong about his inspirations and aspirations. ”Similar to magic, I was always drawn to the mystery of cinematography,” Fong says, citing Stanley Kubrick and Steven Speilberg as some of the director’s whose work he is drawn to. Fong’s passion for image making began at an early age with his love of still photography and making short films, and through college — after receiving a degree in Linguistics at UCLA, he went on to study at Art Center. ”The director is the dreamer and the cinematographer helps make the dream come true,” says Fong. Look for Fisher’s ON FILM interview with Fong in the upcoming months at: KODAK On Film Interviews.
