Passage III

James Wong Howe, Cinematographer

[1]

To visually express elements such as mood and tone, movie directors rely on cinematographers to work closely with them. In this artistic field, few cinematographers rank the higher for James Wong Howe.

[2]

To be born in China in 1899, Howe moved with his family to Washington State at the age of five. During his childhood, Howe became interested in photography. When he was twelve, he purchased his first camera and taught himself to develop film. In 1916, after moving to Los Angeles, Howe worked in a photography studio to improve his skills in developing film and shooting photographs.

[3]

Howe's fifty-seven-year career in cinematography began later, on the set of famed director Cecil B. DeMille's 1919 film Male and Female. For a scene in which a lion attacks the film's star, DeMille needed multiple cameras but was short on camera operators. He called in Howe, who was in charge, of cleaning the camera room, to help shoot the scene. DeMille, pleased with Howe's work that he hired him as an assistant camera operator for his next several films.

[4]

In addition to operating movie cameras, Howe also photographed the actors on the set. The popular actress Mary Miles Minter discovered Howe's talent when he figured out how to keep her pale eyes from appearing white in black-and-white photographs. He was soon hired as the cinematographer for her films, which established Howe's reputation as an expert in the field.

[5]

Howe worked on over 140 films. He earned the nickname "Low-Key Howe,“ for the way he lowered the height of studio lights to make interiors look dim and moody. His camera work was also imaginative. During filming for the boxing movie Body and Soul; for instance, he roller-skated around the ring, shooting close-ups with a small handheld camera.

[6]

For his artful cinematography, Howe was awarded and won two Academy Awards, and an additional eight more nominations were made. Today, many cinematographers attribute mostly the best innovative camera techniques to James Wong Howe.