Peter Suschitzky
British cinematographer and photographer
title: "Peter Suschitzky" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1941-births", "living-people", "best-cinematography-genie-and-canadian-screen-award-winners", "british-jews", "english-cinematographers", "english-people-of-austrian-jewish-descent", "film-people-from-london", "institut-des-hautes-études-cinématographiques-alumni"] description: "British cinematographer and photographer" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Suschitzky" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary British cinematographer and photographer ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Peter Suschitzky |
| honorific_suffix | ASC |
| image | Peter Suschitzky.jpg |
| caption | Peter Suschitzky at Louis Lumière's ciné-club |
| in January 2018 | |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | London, England, UK |
| years_active | 1966–2020 |
| organization | American Society of Cinematographers |
| spouse | Ilona Suschitzky |
| parents | Wolfgang Suschitzky |
| website | http://petersuschitzky.com |
| :: |
| name = Peter Suschitzky | honorific_suffix = ASC | image = Peter Suschitzky.jpg | caption = Peter Suschitzky at Louis Lumière's ciné-club in January 2018 | birth_name = | birth_date = | birth_place = London, England, UK | death_date = | death_place = | years_active = 1966–2020 | organization = American Society of Cinematographers | spouse = Ilona Suschitzky | children = | parents = Wolfgang Suschitzky | website = http://petersuschitzky.com Peter Suschitzky, A.S.C. (born 25 July 1941) is a British cinematographer and photographer, known for his collaboration with David Cronenberg from 1988 to 2014.
Early life and education
Suschitzky was born in London, England, the son of the BAFTA-nominated cinematographer Wolfgang Suschitzky, an Austrian of Jewish descent.
Although music was Peter's passion, he chose to pursue a career in cinematography while studying at Institut des hautes études cinématographiques in Paris, France.
Career
He became a clapper boy at age 19 and a camera operator at age 22.
Among his first films as DP was It Happened Here, a mockumentary-style World War II film about life in the United Kingdom, following a hypothetical Axis victory in World War II. The film was shot on handheld, 16mm film in order to give it a gritty, realistic look inspired by wartime newsreels. Due to the film's independent nature and unusual subject matter, its production lasted a total of eight years.
In 1975, Suschitzky shot The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a comedy musical film that, while initially unsuccessful, has since become a massive cult film, with regular midnight screenings attended by dedicated, cosplaying fans. He shot the 1977 biopic Valentino for director Ken Russell, for which he received a nomination for a BAFTA Film Award for Best Cinematography. Three years later, he would lens the second entry in the long-running Star Wars film series, The Empire Strikes Back, considered to be the best in the series.
Suschitzky replaced Mark Irwin as David Cronenberg's regular director of photography after Irwin left Dead Ringers during pre-production. Their collaboration lasted until 2014, with Maps to the Stars, with Douglas Koch replacing Suschitzky as Cronenberg's regular in 2022.
Filmography
Short film
::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1964 | The Meeting | Mamoun Hassan | |
| 1965 | Mister Lewis | Malcolm Craddock | |
| 1966 | Road to Saint Tropez | Michael Sarne | |
| The Beach | Malcolm Craddock | ||
| 2017 | ERDEM x H&M: The Secret Life of Flowers | Baz Luhrmann | Advertising campaign film |
| 2020 | Starling - Off the Ground | Elliot Dear | |
| :: |
Documentary short ::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Director |
|---|---|---|
| 1964 | Trinidad and Tobago | Geoffrey Jones |
| 1965 | Surface to Surface | Victor Menzies |
| :: |
Feature film
::data[format=table]
Television
::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | Mächte des Glaubens | Peter von Zahn | Episode "Das Judentum" |
| 1993 | Fallen Angels | Tom Hanks | |
| Tom Cruise | Episodes "I'll Be Waiting" and "The Frightening Frammis" | ||
| :: |
TV movies ::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | The War Game | Peter Watkins | Uncredited |
| Francis Bacon Fragments of a Portrait | Michael Gill | Documentary film | |
| :: |
Awards and recognition
BAFTA Awards ::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | Valentino | Best Cinematography | |
| :: |
Canadian Screen Awards ::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Dead Ringers | Best Cinematography | |
| 1991 | Naked Lunch | ||
| 1996 | Crash | ||
| 2007 | Eastern Promises | ||
| :: |
Accademia del Cinema Italiano ::data[format=table]
| Year | Title | Category | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Tale of Tales | Best Cinematography | |
| :: |
Suschitzky is also featured in the book Conversations with Cinematographers, published by Scarecrow Press.
In 2015 he was selected to be a member of the jury for the Critics' Week section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.
References
References
- "PETER SUSCHITZKY".
- "Peter Suschitzky".
- cinematographers.nl. "Peter Suschitzky, ASC".
- "Peter Suschitzky Biography (1941?-)".
- "Moving to Holland and working as a photographer".
- "PETER SUSCHITZKY".
- "Rocky Horror Picture Show - Blue Mouse Theatre".
- "TRHPS Official Fan Site: Participation".
- Aftab, Kaleem. "DP Peter Suschitzky on The Empire Strikes Back, Collaborating with David Cronenberg and the New Wave's "Boring Light" {{!}} Filmmaker Magazine". Filmmaker Magazine.
- (2016-03-25). "From a Certain Point of View: Is The Empire Strikes Back Really the Best Star Wars Film? {{!}} StarWars.com". StarWars.com.
- Burgess, Steve, '' Salon.com''. (30 November 1999). "David Cronenberg".
- "Ronit Elkabetz, President of the 2015 Critics' Week Jury". Semaine de la Critique de Cannes.
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::