Robert Richardson

Robert Richardson, ASC, is a cinematographer recognized for his contributions to American cinema and visual storytelling. Richardson graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film/Animation/Video and earned a Master of Fine Arts from AFI Conservatory. Early in his career, he worked on second unit cinematography for "Repo Man" and filmed television documentaries for PBS and BBC, experiences that shaped his approach to visual narrative.

Richardson's career advanced when Oliver Stone invited him to shoot "Salvador" in Central America, beginning a long-term collaboration. He worked with Stone on 11 films, earning his first Academy Award nomination for "Platoon" and his first win for "JFK." His work on "JFK" utilized multiple film stocks and cameras to create a documentary aesthetic, a technique he further developed in "Natural Born Killers," "Nixon," and "U-Turn." Richardson has also collaborated with directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese, contributing to films including "Bringing Out the Dead," "Kill Bill, Vol. 1," and "Kill Bill, Vol. 2."

Richardson has received three Academy Awards and seven nominations for cinematography. His additional Oscars came with "The Aviator" and "Hugo," both directed by Scorsese, and both films also earned him BAFTA nominations for Best Cinematographer. Richardson is among a select group of cinematographers to have won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography three times. He has contributed to eight films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, including "Platoon," "Born on the Fourth of July," "JFK," "A Few Good Men," "The Aviator," "Inglourious Basterds," "Hugo," and "Django Unchained," with "Platoon" winning Best Picture.

Known for high-contrast lighting, dynamic camera movement, and a versatile visual style, Richardson has worked on both "Kill Bill" films and collaborated with Tarantino on "Inglourious Basterds." "The Hateful Eight" was the first film shot in anamorphic Ultra Panavision 70mm since Khartoum. Richardson also served as cinematographer for "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood," "Emancipation" directed by Antoine Fuqua, "Air" directed by Ben Affleck for Amazon Studios, and "The Equalizer 3" for Columbia Pictures.

Richardson received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Cinematographers and, alongside Tarantino, the cinematographer-director duo award at Camerimage. A feature documentary about his career, "Robert Richardson: The White Devil," was selected to screen at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where he was honored with the Crystal Globe for Outstanding Artistic Contribution. Richardson is recognized for his historical and technical research in cinematography and maintains a focus on the artistic and narrative aspects of filmmaking, contributing to a significant body of work in the film industry.