Award-winning cinematographer Kate McCullough visited the ARC programme on February 12, 2016 to discuss her work in documentary and fiction, and her collaborations with artists such as Sarah Browne and Clodagh Emoe. Issues discussed included the role of the cinematographer/DoP in relation to development, editing and postproduction processes, the use of smartphone cameras and lenses, research approaches and ethics in cinematography.

Biography

Kate McCullough has been developing a very particular eye since 2003 when at just 23 she shot the multi award winning U.K short Hibernation which saw her pick up her first cinematography award in Aspen, U.S.A 2006. She made her entry onto the world stage with His and Hers at Sundance 2010 where it garnered the World Cinematography Award in Documentary. Kate’s work was described as having ‘Vermeer like qualities’ by the judges. Here in Ireland she was presented with the Michael Dwyer Discovery Award, JDIFF/IFB 2010 and a Donal Gilligan Award- Best Cinematography, Galway Film Festival 2011 for her work on the short Mummy’s little helper. Her first fiction feature Snap  premiered at Tribecca 2010 with Variety  describing Mc Cullough’s palette as ‘balancing the correct doses of dread and hope in a film with just the right amount of gothic visual architecture’. She has continued to shoot a number of acclaimed features which have taken her around the world from New York, Moscow, Havana to Tel Aviv, Paris, Oklahoma and Sweden. Most recently Here was Cuba  is nominated in the category for Best cinematography at the Irish Film and TV awards 2014.