WINNING TOUCH

Thanks to her talent for lighting and photography, Evelin van Rei was awarded this year’s Angénieux Special Encouragement award at Cannes.  

“Images for me are about emotion, light, and reaching people. I just wanted to create”, says London-based Dutch cinematographer and photographer Evelin van Rei, who received the Angénieux Special Encouragement award at the Cannes Film Festival. 

Van Rei is the first cinematographer who did not go to film school to be given the award, which recognises next-generation cinematographic talent. After obtaining her first-class honours degree from the Cambridge School of Art in 2012, she started off working as a camera trainee and clapper loader, before transitioning into lighting on short films, music videos, and commercials in late 2014.  

“Traditionally, the route to lighting is very long. You’d spent most of your adult life progressing through the ranks; from camera trainee, loader, focus puller, operator, to then maybe have a shot at lighting,” says van Rei, who currently works in long-form and commercials. She opted to climb the ladder quickly. “I discovered I wasn’t deeply interested in the assisting and technical side of things. I just needed to create, I wanted to tell a story.”   

Her approach to lighting and photography caught the attention of Angénieux. She has an intuitive and organic attitude to cinematography, and developed a distinctive signature style across her body of work, both in still and moving images. “For me, lighting always needs to feel emotive, effortless and authentic,” she says. “I don’t like things to be over-lit, feel fake, or beautified in order to obey the patriarchy’s double standards. For me, staying true to the story and its characters is of utmost importance.”   

 She adds: “Imagery has the capacity to move us into unknown emotional depths. They contain energy. A visceral-ness. I strive for my imagery to have a sensitive and singular point of view on the world, and to carry a personality and a distinct style. Capturing life in an eternal, intriguing way.” 

Van Rei is interested in stories of all kinds. “There needs to be natural connection that I have with the script, the meaning or message, and the director, as a human being — whatever story we are telling”, she emphasises. “I am intuitively drawn to, and fascinated by, the complexities and fragility of human existence, the darker side of our human mind. Our conscious, unconscious, and behaviour. I tend to seek out narratives which explore this.” Van Rei loves the imaginative and analytical process with the director of finding the deeper layers and themes within these stories and its characters.