Roger Deakins on Instinct, Experience and Not Knowing What Is a Cinematographer: ‘I Still Can’t Answer That’

Cinematographer Roger Deakins says he cannot give a single definition of cinematography, arguing that the images a film needs depend on its story and the people making it. He believes emotional response and instinct shape visual choices, while a filmmaker’s experiences help them understand and enrich the stories they tell.

Deakins, who grew up in Torquay, says he initially used a camera as a way to feel more confident approaching the world. He and his wife and collaborator James Ellis Deakins encourage filmmakers to draw on life beyond cinema and to develop their own sensibility by studying their photographs and footage. Discussing his still photography, Ellis points to patterns in how he connects shapes, while Deakins says he often responds to an image as a whole rather than analysing its parts.