Richard Chisolm
Director of Photography for
Film & Video - Documentary Specialist - Camera Operator
Deeply committed to the value of real stories and the lives of real people, Richard has worked for PBS, National Geographic, BBC, Discovery Channel, HBO, and many other broadcast entities. He was a Camera Operator on the HBO series "The Wire" and the Director of Photography for both of ABC's "Hopkins" primetime medical documentary series (2000 & 2008). In addition to the EMMY, he is the recipient of a Peabody Award, a Columbia DuPont Journalism Award, two Kodak Vision Awards, and four CINE Golden Eagles.
Personal Statement
I consider it a privilege to make moving images for which the world has a need. I've always been drawn to the observation and depiction of real life and thoroughly enjoy being 'in the moment'. I believe recording people’s lives, thoughts and experiences to be a profoundly meaningful act.
When shooting, I think about lighting, movement, framing, depth of field, eye lines, etc., and I critically weigh the utility of shots on the eventual editing table. But above all, I imagine in the back of my mind the perspective of a curious and critical viewer. I try to deliver to an audience the feeling of being there--being inside the story. To me this intuitive process is the essence of cinematography, and I strive for it to be visually engaging.
I started making films as a teenager and went on to study, work and teach at the University of Maryland Baltimore County in the film/video area of the Visual Arts department. In 1982, I received a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies from UMBC, and in 2001 was awarded “Distinguished Alumnus of the Year.”
My freelance career began in the early eighties, and I taught film courses part-time at The Johns Hopkins University through 1992. Over the years I have done camera work on a wide variety of projects: feature films, TV series, commercials, corporate and educational videos. However, most of my experience continues to be in the realm of documentaries and actuality-style drama, much of it shot hand-held, a particular specialty of mine. Cinematography also allows me opportunities in international travel for which I am always deeply grateful and personally enriched.
As image-making technologies and styles evolve, I try to embrace the changes with enthusiasm. But whatever the camera, I compel myself to form a close relationship to its viewfinder, a component aptly named to remind me of my fundamental calling: to find views.
Awards
Publications
Notable Interviews
National Cinematography EMMY Award
-
America's Endangered Species: Don't Say Good-bye [Documentary]
National Cinematography Emmy Nomination
-
Avalanche: The White Death
[TV Movie]
Peabody Award
-
Hopkins
[TV Mini-Series Documentary] -
Depression: Out of the Shadows
[Documentary]
Columbia Journalism DuPont Award
-
Hopkins
[TV Mini-Series Documentary] -
Unnatural Causes
[TV Mini-Series Documentary]
Selected Credits
2025
72 Hours (Dramatic Short-Deno Seder Productions) (DP)
2024
1001 Cuts (Documentary Short) (DP/Co-Producer)
Death and Taxes (Documentary Feature-Shadowbox Films) (Additional Cinematography)
Rosemary Street (Web Series-Elena Moscatt) (DP)
And So It Begins (Documentary Feature-Ramona Diaz) (Additional Cinematography)
2023
NOVA: Ultimate Space Telescope (Documentary-Terri Randall Productions) (DP)
Searching (PBS Series-Geoffrey Haines-Stiles) (DP)
2022
Gumbo Coalition (Documentary Feature-Barbara Kopple) (Additional Cinematography)
Turf Valley (Web Series) (DP)
2021
Walk With Frank (Documentary Feature-Mayers Films) (DP)
2019
Gun Show [Documentary Short] (Director, DP)
No Small Matter [Documentary Feature-Siskel/Jacobs](DP)
Charm City [Documentary Feature-Big Mouth Prods.)
(Additional Cinematography))
The Gene [Documentary Series-Ark Media) (DP)
2017
Fantastic Fungi [Documentary Feature] (Cinematography)
The Opera House [Documentary Feature] (Cinematography)
2016
Curiosity Stream [Documentary Series] (Cinematography)
-Music Moves Our Souls-Rachel Barton Pine
Multiple Maniacs [BTS Video-Criterion Collection] (DP)
2015
American Secrets [Documentary] (Cinematographer)
The Raising of America [TV Mini-Series Documentary] (Director of Photography)
- Are We Crazy About Our Kids?
Samuel Barber: Despite and Still [Documentary] (Additional Cinematography)
To Step Forward Myself [Documentary] (Additional Photography)
Independent Lens [TV Series Documentary] (Additional Camera)
2013
JFK: A President Betrayed [Documentary] (Cinematographer)
What Time Is Left [Documentary] [Camera Operator]
Money for Nothing: Inside the Federal Reserve [Documentary] (Additional Cinematographer)
2012
What Love Is: The DukePathfinders [Documentary] (Cinematographer)
Frontline [TV Series Documentary] [Camera Operator]
- Fast Times at West Philly High
2011
Risk Takers [TV Series Documentary] (Director of Photography)
Cafeteria Man [Documentary] (Director) (Producer) (Cinematographer)
2010
Bach & Friends [Documentary] (Director of Photography)
Secrets of the Dead [TV Movie Documentary] (Camera Operator)
2009
Unnatural Causes [TV Mini-Series Documentary] (Cinematographer)
4 [Greek TV Series] (Camera Operator)
National Geographic Explorer [TV Series Documentary] (Additional Cinematographer)
Orgasm Inc. [Documentary] (Additional Camera Operator)
Nova [TV Series Documentary] [Camera Operator]
- Independent Lens [TV Series Documentary] (Additional Cinematographer)
2008
The Response [Dramatic Short] (Director of Photography)
Hopkins [TV Mini-Series Documentary] (Director of Photography, Field Producer)
Waiting for Hockney [Documentary] (Director of Photography)
The Truth About Cancer [TV Movie Documentary] (Cinematographer)
An American Affair [Dramatic Feature] (Camera Operator)
Depression: Out of the Shadows [TV Movie Documentary] (Cinematographer)
2007
National Geographic Explorer [TV Series Documentary] (Cinematographer)
2006
50/50 [Docudrama Short] (Cinematographer)
National Geographic Explorer [TV Series Documentary] (Cinematographer)
2005
All the Dirt on 'A Dirty Shame' [Video Documentary] (Camera)
Nova [TV Series Documentary] (Cinematographer)
- Saving the National Treasures
Hunter & Hunted [TV Series Documentary] (Cinematographer)
- Alligators: Predators in Paradise
The Critical Hour [TV Series Documentary] (Cinematographer)
The Critical Hour: Shock Trauma [TV Series] (Cinematographer)
2004
The Question of God: Sigmund Freud & C.S. Lewis [TV Documentary] (Cinematographer)
The Wire [HBO Series] (Camera Operator)
2003
K Street [TV Series] (Camera Operator)
Nova [TV Series Documentary] [Camera Operator]
2002
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow [TV Documentary] (Cinematographer)
2001
Plagues: The Ebola Riddle [TV Documentary] (Cinematographer)
Treasure Seekers: In the Shadow of Ancient Rome [TV Documentary] (Cinematographer)
Treasure Seekers: Mysteries of the Nile [TV Documentary] (Cinematographer)
Nurses (TV Mini-Series) (Director of Photography)
The Shape of Life [TV Series Documentary] (Cinematographer)
- Origins
The Press Secretary [TV Documentary] [Camera Operator]
Loop Dreams: The Making of a Low-Budget Movie [Documentary] (Additional Camera Operator)
Life and Debt [Documentary] (Additional Camera Operator)
Nova [TV Series Documentary] [Camera Operator]
- Survivor M.D.: Hearts & Minds
- Survivor M.D.: Second Opinions
2000
In Bad Taste [Feature Documentary] (Cinematographer)
Hopkins 24/7 [TV Series] (Director of Photography, Field Producer)
American Byzantine [TV Documentary] (Cinematographer)
1999
The Noble Horse [National Geographic Documentary] (Additional Photographer)
1998
Avalanche: The White Death (National Geographic Documentary) (Production Photographer)
When You Believe: Music from 'The Prince of Egypt' [TV Documentary] [Camera Operator]
Frontline [TV Series Documentary]
(Cinematographer)
1996
With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America (TV Mini-Series documentary) (Additional Camera Operator - segment "We Are Family")
Frontline [TV Series Documentary] [Cinematographer]
- The Pilgrimage of Jesse Jackson
- So You Want to Buy a President?
1999
American Masters [TV Series Documentary] (Cinematographer)
- Robert Rauschenberg: Inventive Genius
1998
Avalanche: The White Death [TV Movie] (Cinematographer)
Anatomy of a 'Homicide: Life on the Street' [TV Movie Documentary] (Cinematographer)
Frontline [TV Series Documentary] (Cinematographer)
America's Endangered Species: Don't Say Good-bye [TV Movie Documentary] (Cinematographer)
Arguing the World [Documentary] (Cinematographer)
1997
Volcano: Nature's Inferno [TV Documentary] (Cinematographer)
Innovation [TV Documentary] (Cinematographer)
Frontline [TV Series Documentary] (Cinematographer)
1994
American Experience [TV Series Documentary] (Cinematographer)
- America and the Holocaust: Deceit and Indifference
1993
Switched at Birth: Kimberly's Story [TV Documentary] (Additional Photography)
1991
Childhood [TV Series Documentary] (Cinematographer)
1990
Memory & Imagination: New Pathways to the Library of Congress [TV Documentary] (Director of Photography)
Local Heroes, Global Change [TV Series Documentary] (Cinematographer)
1987
Eyes on the Prize [TV Series Documentary] (Assistant Camera)
1985
The Passing (Cinematographer)
Awards
National Cinematography EMMY Award
-
Don't Say Good-bye [Documentary]
National Cinematography Emmy Nomination
-
Avalanche: The White Death [TV Movie]
Peabody Award
-
Hopkins [TV Mini-Series Documentary]
-
[Documentary]
Columbia Journalism DuPont Award
-
Hopkins [TV Mini-Series Documentary]
-
Unnatural Causes [TV Mini-Series Documentary]
Edward Albee
Marin Alsop
Bob Ballard
Joshua Bell
Andre Braugher
Bill Bruford
Michael Caine
Ben Carson
James Carville
Bill Clinton
Jacques Cousteau
Johnny Depp
Michael Dukakis
Ahmet Ertegun
Thomas Friedman
Carlos Fuentes
Philip Glass
Jane Goodall
Dick Gregory
Seymour Hersh
Ted Kennedy
Elizabeth Kubler-Ross
Sugar Ray Leonard
Wynton Marsalis
Bobby McFerrin
Joan Mondale
Bill Moyers
Joe Namath
Paul Newman
Queen Noor
Jim Palmer
Iggy Pop
Colin Powell
Ronald Reagan
Cokie Roberts
Kenny Rogers
Jonas Salk
Martin Sheen
Hedrick Smith
Esperanza Spalding
Billy Taylor
Mel Torme
Desmond Tutu
John Waters
Elie Wiesel
Phil Woods
Andrew Young
Alan Alda
Russell Baker
John Barth
Jorge Luis Borges
J. Carter Brown
Art Buchwald
Naomi Campbell
Jimmy Carter
Julia Child
Hillary Clinton
Walter Cronkite
Elizabeth Dole
Marion Wright Edelman
Geraldine Ferraro
David Frost
John Kenneth Galbraith
John Glenn
Al Gore
Patty Hearst
Jesse Jackson
Larry King
Ricki Lake
Pope John Paul ll
Dave Mathews
Robert McNamara
Walter Mondale
Ralph Nader
Willie Nelson
Wayne Newton
Barack Obama
Michelle Obama
Michael Pollan
Paulina Porizkova
Robert Rauschenberg
Max Roach
Brooks Robinson
Carl Sagan
Tom Selleck
Beverly Sills
Mitch Snyder
Isaac Stern
Mother Theresa
Nina Totenberg
Jack Valente
James Watson
Stevie Wonder
Neil Young
Contact
Tel: 410-340-5308