STEPHEN M. KATZ, ASC
Director of Photography

Stephen M. Katz ASC career in the film industry spans 35 years. He has worked in virtually every arena of film production from inception of a project to it’s release on the screen. He studied design and photography at California Institute of the Arts and Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles. After his studies Stephen entered the world of advertising, fashion photography and journalism. Look Magazine honored him with the Earl Theisen Award for Photograph of the Year.

Stephen segued into the world of film in the early 1970s. He gravitated toward cinematography and began perfecting his craft under the guidance of Academy Award Winners Geoffrey Unworthy (Cabaret, 2001: Space Odyssey, Tess) and Haskel Wexler (Bound for Glory, Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Wolf).

In the early 1970s Stephen was approached by then producer Jonathan Demme to be cinematographer on a low budget exploitation film for Roger Corman’s company, New World Pictures. This was beginning of 10 years of back to back films of this genre. Stephen refers to these years as the “comic book years” Many of these films today have become cult classics and are being re-leased in theaters and DVDs today. Such titles as Willard Huyck’s, “Messiah of Evil”, Jack Hills, “Swtchblade Sisters”, Jonathan Kaplan’s “Student Teachers” to name only a few.

During this period Stephen and John Landis partnered in the comedy classic “Kentucky Fried Movie”. This relationship led Stephen to Universal Studio’s blockbuster classic “The Blues Brothers”, which, to this day, continues to find audiences world wide.

Stephen career spans 60 films. Some of his credits include Tom Morre’s adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning plat, ’night Mother”, Bob Clark’s adaptation of Arthur Miller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “The American Clock”’ and Gil Cates’ adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “Death In The Family”.

Stephen was director of photography on the New York Times’ Critics Pick, Golden Globe and Academy Award winning film, “God’s and Monsters” director by Billy Condon.

He also has directed and was cinematographer on cable television shows such as “The Lot” for American Movie Classics and “Dream On” for HBO.

He recently completed photography in Paris on “Keep Calm and Carry On”, directed by Thomas Sanchez and was Photographic Consultant on the Polish film “Dig Deeper” directed by Konrad Szolajski.

He is presently shooting a French documentary, “Mes Fantomes“, set in Detroit, Michigan, and directed by Stephen Faigenbaum.

Today Stephen resides in Provence, France. He is a professor in Paris, lectures at universities. and film festivals internationally.