Opening Week with Roger and James Deakins

To view all Roger Deakins event at the Athenaeum Center, visit: https://athenaeumcenter.org/special-events/roger-deakins/
Join award-winning cinematographer Roger Deakins and collaborator/wife James Deakins (aka Team Deakins) for a week of events leading up to our public opening of the Roger Deakins Photography Exhibition.

The exhibition is open October 18, 2024–April 30, 2025, Tuesdays and Fridays 12:00 pM – 4:00 PM or by appointment. Learn more: https://athenaeumcenter.org/events/2024/roger-deakins-photography-exhibition/

Acclaimed cinematographer Roger Deakins is one of the foremost artists of our day. He is the recipient of five BAFTA Awards for Best Cinematography, and has had fifteen nominations and two wins for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. His work on films like The Shawshank Redemption, O Brother Where Art Thou?, No Country for Old Men, and Fargo has heavily influenced the landscape of the film industry, and he is a member of the British Society of Cinematographers and the American Society of Cinematographers. He was named Commander of the British Empire in 2013 and knighted in 2022, the first cinematographer to receive these honors.

Deakins’ work showcases his incredible attention to detail. His mastery of the language of film is almost unparalleled in the field. His films are often regarded as modern classics, particularly because his genius is in part in his ability to invoke centuries’-old artistic traditions in a modern context. Deakins is captivated by the construct of light and dark, for example, and his incorporation of highlight and shadow into his frames falls in the tradition of the illustrious Caravaggio, among others.

Deakins’ cinematography is very simple when compared to many modern filmmakers. In an interview with A Rabbit’s Foot, Deakins commented that “it’s what’s in the frame. That’s what’s … important.” He is incomparably attentive to his subject matter, and he beautifully understands the communicative aspect of visual storytelling. Deakins is convicted of the substantive meaning of art, and the result is films-and photos-that are saturated with meaning. In his capable hands, the artistic reality reaches out to touch the truths it signifies.