James Wong Howe, A.S.C. (Chinese: 黃宗霑; pinyin: Huáng Zōngzhān; August 28, 1899 – July 12, 1976) 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 deep-focus cinematography, in which both foreground and distant planes remain in focus.During the 1930s and 1940s, Howe was one of the most sought after cinematographers in Hollywood. He was nominated for 10 Academy Awards for cinematography, winning twice for The Rose Tattoo (1955) and Hud (1963). Howe was judged to be one of the 10 most-influential cinematographers in a survey of the members of the International Cinematographers Guild in the United States.
Howe met his wife, Sanora Babb, before World War II. They traveled to Paris in 1937 to marry, but their marriage was not recognized by California until 1948, after the law banning racial intermarriage was abolished. Due to the ban, Howe's studio contract "morals clause" prohibited him from publicly acknowledging their marriage. They would not cohabit due to his traditional Chinese views, so they had separate apartments in the same building.
During the early years of the HUAC witch-hunts, Babb was blacklisted,[4] and moved to Mexico City to protect the "graylisted" Howe from harassment. Howe raised his godson, producer and director Martin Fong, after Fong arrived in the United States. He is buried at Pierce Bros. Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
Although the innovation of deep focus cinematography is usually associated with Gregg Toland, Howe used it in his first sound film, Transatlantic, ten years before Toland used the technique on Citizen Kane. For deep focus, the cinematographer narrows the aperture of the camera lens, and floods the set with light, so that elements in both the foreground and background remain in sharp focus. The technique requires highly sensitive film and was difficult to achieve with early film stocks; Toland, Howe, and Arthur Edeson were among the earliest cinematographers to successfully use it.
