RACHEL MORRISON

My wife jokes that any time I want to take a picture of her, it has nothing to do with her - it's just because the light is really nice. She's usually right. I definitely am somebody who notices the way the light skips off the floor.

I shot 'Fruitvale Station' on super-16, and then I shot a movie called 'The Harvest' on 35mm, and then I shot 'Little Accidents' on 2-perf 35.

The first female DPs that I was aware of were Ellen Kuras, Mandy Walker, Nancy Schreiber, Amy Vincent, Sandi Sissel, Maryse Alberti and Tami Reiker. You look for a role model as somebody who looks like yourself and is doing what you want to do; they were the handful.

I came up in photography, and Dust Bowl-era photography is a lot of the reason that I got behind the camera in the first place.

The cinematographer's basically translating the director's vision into imagery.

You just sort of get used to being one of the only women on set, so it's really refreshing to start to enter a time when that's not the case anymore.

I think there's this assumption that everybody would rather be a director, and I don't know that that's the case for me, so we'll see.

It would be naive to say that you could make a movie on film for the same price you can digitally.

My dad, before he passed away, never understood what I did. What I say is that I'm responsible for translating the director's vision, hopefully turning an idea into something people can connect to and relate to.

Half of 'Mudbound' were shots I stole in between other scenes.

I might be one of the very few people in this industry who doesn't have a 'me too' story.

I don't love cinematography that's very flashy because I find that it keeps the audience from becoming a part of the film; it becomes sort of self-reflective.

The best kind of entertainment is the kind that also makes you question something or think outside the box or live another life. Those are the stories that I'm drawn to.

I've had something like seven films at Sundance, one of which won the Grand Jury Prize.

I gravitate much more toward realism, realism in the work that I do, but magical realism got me hooked on film. I think it was my first time realizing that there was something besides popcorn movies.

The big trick is just to get to a point where we're just considered DPs, and we're not 'female DPs.' When you think of the word 'doctor' or 'teacher,' you don't think gender. And it would be nice to get to a place where 'DP' meant either and 'director' meant either and 'gaffer' meant either.

I didn't want 'Mudbound' to feel stylized in any way.

For me, it's just always about trying to tell stories that I care about.

I think 'Sound of My Voice' was the first film where suddenly I could point to something I had done that I was proud of and say, 'Look at this piece of work.' And that's probably what led to 'Fruitvale Station,' which was the real break.

Cinematography is so much about instinct and intuition - you want the same range of experience going into behind the camera as what you see in front of it. Your life experience will come through the lens.

The biggest difference for me was that I operated almost every frame on 'Mudbound,' and I didn't operate on 'Black Panther.'

Usually, if you notice good cinematography, then the cinematographer's failing. I try to make light feel like it's always motivated and natural in some way and hope that the lighting goes unnoticed.

Photos have the real task of bringing exposure to places that we otherwise don't have much awareness of.

I find beauty in imperfection.

When you're so used to operating the camera, it's an extension of your eye and your heart and your head.