November 2023

Shared Spaces: Kirsten Johnson, ASC

This article was originally published with a different introduction in AC March, 2019. Kirsten Johnson, ASC — the award-winning director of Cameraperson (2016) and Dick Johnson Is Dead (2020), and cinematographer of award-winning documentary films like Citizenfour (2014), The Invisible War (2012), and The Oath (2010) — embodies the duality of her craft: she is both a masterful technician and an intuitive artist. Johnson shares her perspective while shooting in Darfur, Sudan. Her work challenges the conventional view of the cameraperson as a mere observer and reflects a deeper, more personal way of seeing — from capturing the realities of war zones and hospitals to the subtleties of boxing matches, churches, courtrooms, and classrooms, as...more