Jordan Cronenweth

Cronenweth came from a family of cinematographers — his father shot early Warner Bros. cartoons — and worked his way up through television before breaking into features in the 1970s, quickly building a reputation among directors for atmospheric, painterly lighting rather than conventional coverage.

The cinematographer's smoke, shafts of light and glowing eyes made Blade Runner the most imitated-looking film of the decade. He had already shot films for Ken Russell and Bob Fosse before Ridley Scott hired him, and he battled the early stages of Parkinson's disease throughout the notoriously difficult production, requiring additional camera operators to help physically execute his exact vision when his own hands became unreliable.

His use of atmospheric haze and hard back-lighting on the film remains one of the most studied and copied lighting schemes in modern cinematography, cited by generations of cinematographers as a direct influence on how they approach shooting night exteriors and interiors alike.