The American Society of Cinematographers has announced Claudia Raschke, known for the likes of Julia, Fauci, RBG and Cracking the Code: Phil Sharp and the Biotech Revolution, as a new member.
Raschke decided to pursue a career in cinematography after moving to New York from Germany to study modern dance with Martha Graham.
The ASC explained: “It was a conversation with a fellow restaurant worker – who also happened to be a part-time cinematography instructor at Columbia University – that planted the seed.
“Impressed by the framing and composition in Raschke’s still photographs, he invited her to a set and offered her an apprenticeship.”
Raschke said: “It was like a lightbulb went off in my head. [I understood] cinematography would nourish all of my artistic needs. I can choreograph using camera movements with my subjects; I can paint with lights and sculpt with shadow to create a three-dimensional world… I didn’t want to do anything else after that.”
She enrolled in a one-year filmmaking programme at New York University and started shooting projects for Columbia film students, before entering the industry as a clapper loader and working her way up to director of photography by 1991.
As well as the aforementioned credits, Raschke has lensed the documentary feature Inside the Mind of a Dog and the TV documentaries Kevin Costner’s The West, Change, Not Charity, Eleanor & Franklin and Pharma.
Her narrative credits include Frame of Mind, Walking on the Sky, His & Hers and Kiss Me, Guido.
