James Wong Howe

James Wong Howe, A.S.C. was a Chinese American cinematographer who worked on over 130 films. He was a master at the use of shadow and was one of the first to use deepfocus cinematography, in which both foreground and distant planes remain in focus.

Howe was born Wong Tung Jim in Taishan, Canton Province , China in 1899. His father Wong Howe moved to America that year to work on the Northern Pacific Railway and in 1904 sent for his family. The Howes settled in Pasco, Washington, where they owned a general store. A Brownie camera, said to have been bought at Pasco Drug when he was a child, sparked an early interest in photography. After his fathers death, the teenaged Howe moved to Oregon to live with his uncle and briefly considered a career as a bantamweight boxer. After compiling a record ofwins,losses and a draw, Howe moved to the San Francisco Bay area in hopes of attending aviation school but ran out of money and went south to Los Angeles, California. Once there, Howe took several odd jobs, including work as a commercial photographers delivery boy and as a busboy at the Beverly Hills Hotel. After a chance encounter with a former boxing colleague who was photographing a Mack Sennett short on the streets of Los Angeles,

Source: Wikipedia