Boris Kaufman
Boris Kaufman ( originally Russian Борис Абелевич Кауфман / Boris Abelewitsch Kaufman, born August 24, 1897 in Białystok, Poland today, † June 24, 1980 in New York City ) was an American cinematographer.
Life
Boris Kaufman was the younger brother of the documentary filmmaker Dziga Vertov and the cameraman Mikhail Kaufman. He came from a Jewish family of intellectuals from the Polish city of Bialystok, which belonged until 1918 to Russia. After the Russian October Revolution of 1917 it moved westward into Boris rising again Poland, while his brothers went to the Soviet Union. The brothers never met again and only stayed in contact by correspondence.
Kaufman went to Paris at the Sorbonne, and after studying with the French filmmaker Jean Vigo together. At the beginning of World War II fought Boris Kaufman in the French Army against Nazi Germany. After the French capitulation, he emigrated to Canada.
In 1942 he went to the USA, where he worked as a cameraman for reports and documentaries. In 1954 he was engaged by Elia Kazan for On the Waterfront. Coinciding with his first American feature film he won an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award. Further work with Kazan followed. In the following years he worked then mainly related to Sidney Lumet. Even at its debut film Twelve Angry Kaufman led the camera. In 1970 he finished his work as a cinematographer.