Dick Pope BSC was awarded The Royal Photographic Society’s Lumière Award during The Society’s Awards ceremony on 16th September at the Royal Society in London.
Pope began his career as a documentary film cameraman, working for many companies including the BBC, travelling the world to remote and inaccessible areas including war zones. He specialised in shooting films about endangered indigenous tribes, including Disappearing World, political films, including World In Action, and also arts films for The South Bank Show.
From the early 1980s Pope shot hundreds of concerts and music videos for bands and artists as diverse as Queen, Tina Turner and The Clash. Moving into features in the mid ‘80s he photographed Porterhouse Blue, for which he was BAFTA-nominated, and Philip Ridley’s Reflecting Skin. In 1990 Pope was asked by director Mike Leigh to photograph Life Is Sweet, beginning a collaboration that has produced ten features, including Secrets And Lies, Vera Drake and Mr Turner.
Pope has twice won the top prize at the Camerimage Festival Of Cinematography – for Vera Drake and Secrets & Lies – and in 1999 Leigh and Pope were recognised there with the Duo Award for their career collaboration. Pope also won the Silver Frog at the same festival for The Illusionist, for which he was also nominated for Academy, ASC and BSC awards. Amongst many wins and nominations for his work on Mr Turner he was awarded the Prix Vulcaine for the Technical Artist, at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, and also nominated for Academy, BAFTA, BSC, ASC and British Independent Film Awards. He was awarded the BSC Cinematography Award for his photography on Mr Turner at the 2015 BSC Summer Luncheon.
Pope’s many other credits include films for leading US maverick directors, such as Richard Linklater, Barry Levinson, John Sayles and Jill Sprecher. Recently, in New York, he photographed Angelica for Mitchell Lichtenstein, the son of the painter Roy Lichtenstein. His latest project is Legend about the notorious Kray Brothers, written and directed by Brian Helgeland.
