Janusz Zygmunt Kamiński (Polish: [ˈjanuʂ kaˈmiɲskʲi]; born June 27, 1959) is a Polish cinematographer and director. He is best known for his long-term collaboration with Steven Spielberg, being his regular cinematographer since 1993.
Kamiński had won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography twice, for Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998). In 2019, the American Society of Cinematographers included both movies on the list of the best-photographed films of the 20th century.
Contents
Early life and education
Kamiński was born in Ziębice, son of Jadwiga Celner and Marian Kamiński. In 1981, he emigrated to the United States at the age of 21 after Prime Minister Jaruzelski imposed martial law.
He attended Columbia College in Chicago from 1982 to 1987, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree, taking up filmmaking as a profession before attending the AFI Conservatory, where he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts degree.
Career
Cinematographer
Kamiński began his career at Roger Corman's Concorde Pictures. He worked under cinematographer Phedon Papamichael, first as a gaffer, and eventually as second unit director of photography.
Spielberg first discovered Kamiński in 1991, after seeing the television film Wildflower. Spielberg then hired Kamiński to shoot Class of '61, a television film in which Spielberg served as producer.
Kamiński won twice the Academy Award for Best Cinematography in the 1990s, for Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. He has been nominated five additional times throughout his career, with four of these movies being directed by Spielberg.
In 2010, he was awarded the Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal by the AFI Conservatory.
Kamiński became a member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) in 1994, but resigned in 2006.
Director
Aside from cinematography, Kamiński has also worked in the field of directing, first with the horror film Lost Souls (2000), and the NBC series The Event (2011) and WE TV series The Divide (2014).
In 2018, Kamiński worried that professional cinematographers were digitally losing control of their own images. In 2010, Kamiński abandoned the Chris Curling female fighter pilot World War II project The Night Witch, and in 2012, Kamiński discussed directing a Los Angeles-based version of the drama "XXXXXX" but nothing became of it.
Personal life
Kamiński was married to actress Holly Hunter from 1995 until 2001.
In 2004, he married ABC reporter Rebecca Rankin; they divorced in 2010.
Filmography
Director
Short film
Making a Scene (2013)
Feature film
Lost Souls (2000)
Hania (2007)
American Dream (2021)
Television
Cinematographer
Feature film
TV movies
TV series
Music videos
