London-born Douglas Slocombe has long been regarded as one of the film
industry's premiere cinematographers, but he began his career as a
photojournalist for Life magazine and the Paris-Match newspaper before
World War II. During the war he became a newsreel cameraman, and at
war's end he went to work for Ealing Studios as a camera operator,
making his debut as a full-fledged cinematographer on Ealing's
Traum ohne Ende (1945). Slocombe is
credited with giving Ealing's films the unique, realistic look it was
famous for. He left Ealing and went freelance, not wanting to be tied
down to a single studio, and divided his time between England and
America. He won the BAFTA--the British equivalent of the Oscar--three
times, for Der Diener (1963),
Der große Gatsby (1974) and
Julia (1977). A favorite of director
Steven Spielberg, he was noted for never having used a light meter while shooting Jäger des verlorenen Schatzes (1981), an almost
indispensable tool for most cinematographers.
