Quotes from Rachel Morrison

I did photography in summer camp; I did it in high school. The only hard decision I've had to make was whether to go towards photo or film. And I ultimately realized that the type of photo I was interested in was actually photojournalism. And it's a very individualist career, whereas film is a very team-driven medium. So that's why I chose film.

I pour my blood, sweat, and tears into a movie. What I always look for is a message and a social consciousness: a relevance to what's happening in our world.

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

I love the team aspect of filmmaking.

My lighting tends to use contrast as a reflection of the stakes in the scene. The higher the stakes, the more I feel I can get away with an exaggerated contrast.

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.

If there's anything consistent about my work, it's not flat.

The theatrical experience is also a communal one. When people saw 'Fruitvale' in the theater, there was not a dry eye at the end of the movie, and you would look to your neighbor and have this shared moment together that had a real weight behind it.

Success doesn't come overnight, especially for women.

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.

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 focus has to be about making good work. I don't ever want to be hired for a job because I'm a woman. And I don't ever want to be recognized for a job because I'm a woman.

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'll never know what happens behind closed doors or why I don't get hired for things.

My experience - I'll never know what happens behind closed doors or why I don't get hired for something, but I've never had an experience that made me feel any less than.

Having a family is a compromise on some level, but it's so incredibly worth it. It actually informs the work that I do as a DP.

I find beauty in imperfection.

I love faces that have freckles. I love faces that have wrinkles. For me, beauty is naturalism, I guess.

As artists, we can't help but infuse our art with our own experience, so your experience becomes informative.

Documentaries are inherently instinctual; you're constantly moment to moment, determining what the best place for the camera is to tell the story, usually in service of natural lighting.

It's hard to go back to shooting contemporary apartment interiors after you shoot something like 'Mudbound.'

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.

When shooting in real spaces, the work of a cinematographer begins where location meets production design meets time of day. No movie light will ever look as real as the sun, so scheduling becomes truly paramount to naturalistic lighting.

To me, as an audience member, movies always come to a screeching halt when they get to their action scenes. They always feel like they drag on to me.