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Gordon Willis, ASC, (born May 28, 1931) is an American cinematographer best known for his work on Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather series as well as Woody Allen's Annie Hall and Manhattan. His fellow cinematographer William Fraker has called Willis's work "a milestone in visual storytelling", while one critic suggested that "more than any other director of photography, Willis defined the cinematic look of the 1970s: sophisticated compositions in which bolts of light and black put the decade’s moral ambiguities into stark relief". When the International Cinematographers Guild... MORE

Gordon Willis, ASC, (born May 28, 1931) is an American cinematographer best known for his work on Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather series as well as Woody Allen's Annie Hall and Manhattan. His fellow cinematographer William Fraker has called Willis's work "a milestone in visual storytelling", while one critic suggested that "more than any other director of photography, Willis defined the cinematic look of the 1970s: sophisticated compositions in which bolts of light and black put the decade’s moral ambiguities into stark relief". When the International Cinematographers Guild conducted a survey in 2003 they placed Willis among the ten most influential cinematographers in history. Willis's work became celebrated for his ability to use shadow and underexposed film "with a subtlety –and expressivity– previously unknown on colour film stock", as one commentator had it, citing as examples Don Corleone's study in The Godfather and Deep Throat's parking garage in All the President's Men. His friend the cinematographer Conrad Hall named him "The Prince of Darkness" but Willis himself preferred to talk in terms of "visual relativity", saying: "I like going from light to dark, dark to LESS