- Born
- Birth nameRobert Bridge Richardson
- Nickname
- Bob
- Robert Richardson has won three Academy Awards and earned seven Academy Award nominations for his cinematography. His work on director Oliver Stone's JFK earned him his first Oscar. His second and third came with The Aviator and Hugo directed by Martin Scorsese. These two films also garnered him BAFTA nominations for Best Cinematographer.
Prior to regularly collaborating with well-known directors like Oliver Stone and Quentin Tarantino, Richardson served an apprenticeship shooting second unit on Repo Man while filming television documentaries for PBS and the BBC. His work in television led Stone to hire Richardson to shoot both Salvador and Platoon. From there, he worked almost exclusively with Stone, filming Wall Street, Born on the Fourth of July and The Doors, while occasionally branching out to shoot films like John Sayles' Eight Men Out and City of Hope.
Richardson also shot Stone's Natural Born Killers, Nixon and U-Turn. He then began collaborating with Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. Scorsese chose him as DP on 1999's Bringing Out the Dead, while Tarantino snapped him up for Kill Bill, Vol. 1 and Kill Bill, Vol. 2.
Richardson continued to make his mark as Tarantino's DP on 2012's Django Unchained and 2015's The Hateful Eight, as well as on Ben Affleck's 2016 film Live By Night. He shot Director Andy Serkis's 2017 Breathe starring Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy; 2018's Adrift for Director Balthasar Kormakur starring Shailene Woodley and Sam Claflin for STX, and 2018's A Private War for Director Matthew Heineman starring Rosamund Pike. Richardson then shot Tarantino's 2020 hit Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, and 2021's Venom 2 for Sony/Director Andy Serkis.
Recent credits include 2022's Emancipation again with Fuqua for Apple Studios, 2023's Air directed by Ben Affleck for Amazon Studios, and The Equalizer 3 for Director Antoine Fuqua and for Columbia Pictures.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Iconic Talent Agency
- SpousesStephanie Martin(February 6, 2011 - ?) (divorced, 1 child)Monona Wali (divorced, 2 children)
- ChildrenKanchan RichardsonMaya RichardsonBibi RichardsonMadeleine Richardson
- One strong key light facing straight down to create a pool of light or a bounce light off of a performer.
- He has frequently worked with 'Oliver Stone', Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.
- The Hateful Eight (2015) is the first film shot in anamorphic Ultra Panavision 70mm since Khartoum (1966).
- Was the original cinematographer of World War Z (2013) but, due to the time consuming troubled production of the film and the several re-shoots, Richardson had to leave the set early to work on Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained (2012). He was replaced by Ben Seresin, who received the whole credit.
- Member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) since 1992.
- M.F.A. - American Film Institute Class of 1979.
- As of 2017, he contributed with the cinematography of eight films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Platoon (1986), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), JFK (1991), A Few Good Men (1992), The Aviator (2004), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Hugo (2011), Django Unchained (2012). Of those, Platoon (1986) is a winner in the category. Richardson's Oscars were for his work on JFK (1991), The Aviator (2004) and Hugo (2011).
- It's important not to confuse visual clichés with artistic photography. If a choice had to be made, I would much rather shoot a good picture than a good-looking picture.
- [on photographing many of Quentin Tarantino's films] Most have a pop approach to the use of vibrant color, which is quite in opposition to the majority of work being done in cinema. That was a tremendous shift for me because I had to move from what I'm normally prone to use, which is a muted palette, to one that's fuller.
- [on photographing Samuel L. Jackson's scenes in Django Unchained (2012)] Skin naturally reflects in a way that makeup doesn't. So we had to figure out a way to light him. Because the primary story circles slavery, of course every shot will, in one way or the other, deal with the contrast of black and white. I hope we succeeded.
- My career is based primarily upon finding a balance with a director and their vision, and that means sublimating my own personal ego toward their material. It's far better to shoot a good picture than a good-looking picture.
- [from his Oscar acceptance speech for Hugo (2011)] To all the past, future and present filmmakers, this is for you.
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