Richard Chisolm

Personal Statement

Having spent most of my childhood drawing, painting and studying art, I turned to making films when I was about fifteen. From the University of Maryland I received a B.A. degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in 1982, with cinematography as a focus. 

During most of the nineteen-eighties, I free-lanced as a camera assistant and then cameraperson, and taught film courses at the Johns Hopkins University. I have worked on a wide variety of commercials, feature films, TV shows, corporate and educational projects. However, most of my work and passion continues to be shooting documentaries and actuality style drama. As a DP, I work in all professional formats of film and video, including 16mm, 35mm, DV, Betacam, and Hi-def.

I have always wanted to make moving images for which the world has a need and I am intensely drawn to the depiction and observation of real life. I thoroughly enjoy being "in the moment" and consider the recording of people’s lives, thoughts and experiences to be the most meaningful task I can possibly perform. When shooting, I think about the concerns of the producer, the balance of light and shadows, the interplay of camera and subject movement and the crucial concerns of the eventual editing process. But transcending all of this, I imagine in the back of my mind the perspective of a curious yet critical viewer. I try to do whatever I can to deliver to that audience the feeling of being there and the reason for observing. To me this intuitive process is as important and integral as the technical aspects of cinematography.

Recent projects include Spies That Fly for PBS/NOVA, The Press Secretary, a high-definition video documentary on the White House press office for PBS, the 6-part ABC television series Hopkins 24/7 (DuPont Columbia Award Recipient 2001), a 5-part series called Nurses for Discovery Health, and  additional camera work for The Wire, an HBO drama series.

Over the years I have done camera work for 11 National Geographic specials, two of which have earned prime-time Emmy nominations for cinematography. In 1998, I received the Emmy for one of those nominations, a one-hour film entitled Don’t Say Goodbye: America’s Endangered Species. In 2001, I was chosen as a Distinguished Alumni of the Year by the University of Maryland Baltimore County.