Introduction
When I looked at the 31 Days of Oscar Blogathon announcement for this year what came to mind as a good idea for crafts would be to examine Cinematographers who were at the Oscars for work in black-and-white and color cinematography. If I decided to just feature those who had won in both it’d have been a smaller club (60 cinematographers are in it by my count). However, as I say with my own awards: the process is more about what’s nominated.
Furthermore, as my motivation was for the last posts on actors and defunct categories I wanted to learn in the process of writing and chronicling all the cinematographers (most past but thankfully a few present) who have been honored for chromatic and monochromatic work alike.
The Cinematographers
One thing that was surprising to learn is that there are many cinematographers who have gotten tons of nominations. There are 10 who have each had more than 10 each. Granted in the more than quarter-century where color and black-and-white photography were honored separately that’s well in excess of 260 potential nominations (there have been loose limits on total number of nominees in the past), but if you look at actors only five (Streep, Hepburn, Nicholson, Davis and Olivier) have reached that mark.
It makes more sense when you also include that working behind the scenes more often a cinematographers images speak for themselves.
Below you will see those who have been nominated in both and the occasional notes about it.
Please note:
-Some titles appear multiple times because early Color cinematography was often a team endeavor.
-This list was assembled manually so if I am missing a name, or am incorrect about the color palette please let me know in the comments.
1. Ernest Haller
Color – Gone with the Wind, The Flame and the Arrow
Black and White – Jezebel; All this and Heaven, Too; Mildred Pierce, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Lillies of the Field
2. Freddie Francis
Color– Glory
Black and White– Sons and Lovers
3. Joseph A. Valentine
Black and White – Mad About Music, First Love, Spring Parade,
Color– Joan of Arc
4. Karl Freund
Black and White– The Good Earth, The Chocolate Soldier
Color– Blossoms in the Dust
5. Leon Shamroy
Black and White– The Young in Heart, Ten Gentlemen from West Point, Prince of Foxes
Color– Down Argentine Way, The Black Swan, Wilson, Leave Her to Heaven, David of Bathsheba, Snows of Kilamanjaro, The Robe, The Egyptian, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, The King and I, South Pacific, Porgy and Bess, Cleopatra, The Cardinal, The Agony and the Ecstasy
6. Joseph Ruttenberg
Black and White– The Great Waltz, Waterloo Bridge, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Mrs. Miniver, Madame Curie, Gaslight, Julius Caesar, Somebody Up There Loves Me
Color– Gigi, BUtterfield 8
7. Robert Surtees
Black and White– Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, The Bad and the Beautiful
Color– King Solomon’s Mines, Quo Vadis?, Oklahoma!, Ben Hur, Mutiny on the Bounty, The Graduate, Dr. Doolittle, The Last Picture Show, Summer of ’42
Won in each medium.
8. Conrad Hall
Black and White– Morituri, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Day of the Locust, Tequila Sunrise, Searching for Bobby Fisher, A Civil Action, American Beauty, Road to Perdition
Color– The Professionals, In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood nomination was after Black-and-White cinematography after category ended.
9. Arthur C. Miller
Black and White– The Rains Came, How Green Was My Valley, This Above All, The Song of Bernadette, The Keys of the Kingdom, Anna and the King of Siam
Color– The Blue Bird
10. Harry Stradling
Black and White– The Human Comedy, The Picture of Dorian Gray, A Streetcar Named Desire, Some Like it Hot, The Young Philadelphians
Color– She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Hans Christian Andersen, Guys and Dolls, The Eddie Duchin Story, Auntie Mame, A Majority of One, Gypsy, My Fair Lady, Funny Girl, Hello, Dolly!
11. James Wong Howe
Black and White– Algiers, Abe Lincoln in Illinois, Kings Row, Air Force, The North Star, The Rose Tattoo, Hud, Seconds
Color– The Old Man and the Sea, Funny Lady
12. Charles Rosher
Black and White– Sunrise, The Affairs of Cellini
Color– Kismet, The Yearling, Annie Get Your Gun, Showboat
13. Burnett Guffey
Black and White– From Here to Eternity, The Harder They Fall, The Birdman of Alcatraz, King Rat
Color– Bonnie and Clyde
14. Haskell Wexler
Black and White – Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Color– One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Bound for Glory, Matewan, Blaze
15. William C. Mellor
Black and White– A Place in the Sun, The Diary of Anne Frank
Color– Peyton Place, The Greatest Story Ever Told
16. Hal Mohr
Black and White– A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Four Poster
Color– Phantom of the Opera
Only write-in nomination for cinematography, back in the wild early days of the Awards.
17. Charles Lang
Black-and-White: The Right to Love; A Farewell to Arms; Arise, My Love; Sundown, So Proudly We Hail!; The Uninvited, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir; A Foreign Affair; Sudden Fear; Sabrina; Queen Bee; Separate Tables; Some Like it Hot; The Facts of Life
Color:One-Eyed Jacks, How the West Was Won, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Butterflies are Free
After 14 nominations for black-and-white cinematography was nominated for color in the following years and for the following films: 1961 One-Eyed Jacks; 1963 How the West Was Won; 1969 Bob & Ted & Carol & Alice
1973 Butterflies Are Free
18. Victor Milner
Black-and-White– The Love Parade, Cleopatra, The Crusades, The General Died at Dawn, The Buccaneer, The Great Victor Herbert, The Furies
Color– North West Mounted Police, Reap the Wild Wind
Six black-and-white nominations before 1940.
19. George Barnes
Black-and-White– The Devil Dancer, The Magic Flame, Sadie Thompson, Our Dancing Daughters, Rebecca, Spellbound,
Color– The Spanish Main, Samson and Delilah
Four nominations in first ceremony; Six total before 1945 The Spanish Main.
20. Joseph LaShelle
Color– How the West Was Won, Irma La Douce
Black-and-White– Laura, Come to the Stable, My Cousin Rachel, Marty, Career, The Apartment, Fortune Cookie.
Six nominations before 1963 How The West Was Won.
21. Ernest Laszlo
Black-and-White– Inherit the Wind, Judgment at Nuremberg, Ship of Fools,
Color– It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World; Fantastic Voyage, Star, Airport, Logan’s Run
Third Nomination in 1963 It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World was first in color.
22. Daniel L. Fapp
Black-and-White– Desire Under the Elms; One, Two, Three
Color– The Five Pennies, West Side Story, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Ice Station Zebra, Marooned.
23. Tony Gaudio
Black-and-White– Hell’s Angels, Anthony Adverse, Juarez, The Letter, Corvette K-225
Color– A Song to Remember
Final nomination of six in Color.
24. Milton Krasner
Color– All About Eve, Three Coins in the Fountain, An Affair to Remember, How the West Was Won
Black-and-White– Arabian Nights, Love with a Proper Stranger, Fate is a Hunter
1950 Second nomination was in Black-and-White for All About Eve.
25. Harold Rosson
Color– The Garden of Allah, The Wizard of Oz
Black-and-White– Boom Town, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, The Asphalt Jungle, The Bad Seed
Third nomination was his first in black-and-white (Boom Town, 1940).
26. Janusz Kaminski
Black-and-White – Schindler’s List
Color – Amistad, Saving Private Ryan, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, War Horse, Lincoln
First nomination in black-and-white.
27. Joseph Valentine
Black-and-White– Wings Over Honolulu, Mad About Music, First Love, Spring Parade
Color– Joan of Arc
Fifth nomination was his first for color. (Joan of Arc, 1948).
28. Robert Burks
Black-and-White: Strangers on a Train, A Patch of Blue
Color: Rear Window, To Catch a Thief
Three of four nominations in Hitchcock films.
29. William H. Daniels
Black-and-White: Anna Christie, The Naked City,
Color: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, How the West Was Won
30. Lee Garmes
Black-and-white: Morocco, Shanghai Express, Since You Went Away
Color: The Big Fisherman
31. Loyal Griggs
Color: Shane, The Ten Commandments, The Greatest Story Ever Told,
Black-and-White: In Harm’s Way
32. Ernest Palmer
Black-and-White: Four Devils, Street Angel
Color: Blood and Sand, Broken Arrow
33. Karl Struss
Black-and-White: Sunrise, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Sign of the Cross
Color: Aloma of the South Seas
34. Sam Leavitt
Black-and-white: The Defiant Ones, Anatomy of a Murder
Color: Exodus
35. Lionel Lindon
Black-and-White: Going My Way, I Want to Live!
Color: Around the World in 80 Days
36. Arthur E. Arling
Color: The Yearling
Black-and-White: I’ll Cry Tomorrow
37. Joseph F. Biroc
Black-and-white: Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte B & W
Color: Towering Inferno
38. Robert Elswit
Black-and-White: Good Night, And Good Luck
Color: There Will Be Blood
39. Paul Vogel
Black-and-White: Battleground
Color: The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm
40. George J. Folsey
Black-and-White: Reunion in Vienna, The Affairs of Cellini, The Gorgeous Hussy, The White Cliffs of Dover, Executive Suite, The Balcony
Color: Thousands Cheer, Meet Me in St. Louis, The Green Years, Green Dolphin Street, Million Dollar Mermaid, All the Brothers Were Valiant, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Four nominations before a color nomination; no wins.
41. Roger Deakins
Black-and-White: The Man Who Wasn’t There,
Color: The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, Kundun; O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, No Country for Old Men, The Reader, True Grit, Skyfall, Prisoners
42. Edward Cronjager
Black-and-White: Cimarron, Sun Valley Serenade, The Pied Piper
Color: To the Shores of Tripoli, Heaven Can Wait, Home in Indiana, Beneath the 12-Mile Reef
Fourth nomination was first in color.
43. Joseph F. Seitz
Black-and-white: The Divine Lady, Five Graves to Cairo, Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend, Sunset Boulevard, Rogue Cop
Color: When Worlds Collide
Sixth nomination in color.
44. Russell Harlan
Black-and-White: The Big Sky, The Blackboard Jungle, To Kill a Mockingbird,
Color: Hatari!, The Great Race, Hawaii
Fourth nomination in color .
45. Ruldolph Maté
Black-and-White: Foreign Correspondent, That Hamilton Woman, The Pride of the Yankees, Sahara
Color: Cover Girl
Fifth and final nomination in color for Cover Girl. Shared.
46. Franz Planer
Black-and-White: Champion, Death of a Salesman, Roman Holiday, The Children’s Hour
Color: The Nun’s Story
Fourth nomination in color.
47. Charles G. Clarke
Black-and-White: The Magnificent Ambersons
Color: Hello, Frisco, Hello, Green Grass of Wyoming, Sand
Second nomination in color, shared.
48. Joseph Walker
Black-and-White: You Can’t Take It With You, Only Angels Have Wings, Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Color: The Jolson Story
Fourth nomination color The Jolson Story.
49. Bert Glennon
Black-and-White: Stagecoach
Color: Drums Along the Mohawk
50. Ray June
Black-and-White: Arrowsmith, Barbary Coast
Color: Funny Face
Final nomination in color.
51. Joseph MacDonald
Black-and-White: The Young Lions, The Sand Pebbles
Color: Pepe
52. Ted D. McCord
Black-and-white: Johnny Belinda, Two for the Seesaw
Color: The Sound of Music
Final nomination was in color.
53. Sol Polito
Color: The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, Captains of the Clouds
Black-and-White: Sergeant York,
Sergeant York black-and-white second nod.
54. Michael Chapman
Black-and-White: Raging Bull
Color: The Fugitive
55. Edward Colman
Black-and-White: The Absent-Minded Professor
Color: Mary Poppins
Both Disney films, the second famously being a live-action/animation hybrid.
56. Philip H. Lathrop
Black-and-White: The Americanization of Emily
Color: Earthquake
57. J. Peverell Marley
Black-and-White: Suez
Color: Life with Father
Second nomination in color, shared.
58. Sidney Wagner
Color: Northwest Passage
Black-and-white: Dragon Seed
59. Gordon Willis
Black-and-White and Color: Zelig
Color: The Godfather Part III
60. Robert Richardson
Color – Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, Snow Falling on Cedars, The Aviator, Hugo, Django Unchained
Partially Black and White– JFK, Inglourious Basterds
All-Color in the Split Era
Just a footnote that the following cinematographers earned ONLY color nominations in the Split Era.
Leonard Smith
Allen M. Davey
Joseph Planck
William V. Skall
W. Howard Greener
All 10 nominations in color cinematography
Oddities
Sven Nyqvist
No black and white nominations. WTF?
Gordon Willis wasn’t nominated for an Oscar for the Godfather, The Godfather Part II or Manhattan. What?
Conclusion
Clearly many cinematographers have proven themselves adept in both styles. Perhaps this will keep black and white occasionally kicking every so often when needed.
The Movie Rat 