Vittorio Storaro is one of the greatest living cinematographers, or as he likes to call himself on the cast from the American cinametographer .
Born in 1940, the son of a Lux Film projectionist, he began studying photography at Rome’s “Duca d’Aosta” Technical Institute and later at the Experimental Center of Cinematography. His film career began in the 1960s and already by the end of this decade he illuminated two extraordinary films such as Dario Argento’s The Bird with the Crystal Feathers and Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist, with whom he formed an artistic partnership that would last until 1993 with Little Buddha. In the 1970s in addition to the masterpieces Novecento and Ultimo tango a Parigi always in collaboration with Bertolucci he illuminates Giordano Bruno directed by Giuliano Montaldo. The decade ended with perhaps his most sophisticated and virtuosic work: Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now earned him the first Oscar of his career, and the image of Marlon Brando slowly revealing himself from the cone of shadow where he had taken refuge became an unforgettable image for millions of viewers. The 1980s are the years of consecration: two Oscars, one for Warren Beatty’s Reds and one for The Last Emperor and the lighting of an absolute cult of the decade as Ladyhawke. His career continued brilliantly, varying in tone and theme, lighting comedies and dramas, documentaries and TV series, always with the same care and elegance. He links his name in addition to those of Coppola and Bertolucci with that of Spanish director Carlos Saura and, since 2016, has been Woody Allen’s trusted director of photography. In 2015 he curated with Francesca Storaro the lighting of the Imperial Forums in Rome. Honorary president of the Academy of Light, he is also the author of Writing with Light, a three-volume encyclopedia resulting from the experience of his work, and The Sign of a Destiny .