Christopher Popp

Germany born Christopher Popp, touched Bollywood shores when he shot Farhan Akhtar's second feature Lakshya.

Christopher, a native of West Germany, became interested in photography since the age of eight when he observed his father developing a black and white picture in the lab of the family photo store.

After studying photography, he trained as a camera operator and 1st AC at German TV's (ZDF) Department of Education. Christopher then worked as an additional cinematographer and operator on documentaries in Egypt, Libya, Kenya, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, Switzerland, France, Canada and the United States.

He has also worked on features, TV features, and TV series in Germany. He shot the Time Lapse sequence for the Canadian- German co-production Music of Kurt Weill: September Songs, The (1995) (TV) which won an “International Emmy Award for Best Performing Arts Picture” in 1996 and a “Gemini Award for Best Photography” in 1997.

He was also the additional cinematographer on – War Symphonies: Sjostakovisj (1997) – another Canadian-German co-production which won an "International Emmy Award for Best Arts Documentary" in 1999 and a Golden Prague for Best Photography in 1998.

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In 1996 Christopher quit his job at German TV and came to Los Angeles to study cinematography at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). The following year he was accepted into the cinematography program at the renowned Center for Advanced Film and Television Studies at the American Film Institute, where cinematographers like 'Robert Richardson' studied before him.

For the cinematography of the film – Shadows (1998) – he received the Gregg Toland Heritage Award from the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) for outstanding achievement in cinematography in February 2000. The ASC established this award in order to seek out and recognize talented new cinematographers.

The award is named after legendary cinematographer "Gregg Toland"(qv) who won the Academy Award for cinematography in 1939 for Wuthering Heights (1939) and is best known for having photographed Orson Welles's Citizen Kane (1941).

Several magazines, including American Cinematographer, Eastman Kodak's InCamera and the German Film und TVKameramann magazine have covered Christopher's work.

Films he has contributed to, screened at international film festivals, theatrically and on television in Europe and the United States. Christopher also shot Farhan Akhtar's Lakshya (2004) on location in India.

Filmography

Lakshya - (2004)
War Symphonies - Sjostakovitsj (1997)
To Live Without Fear
The Music of Kurt Weill: September Songs
Mond scheint auch für Untermieter, Der
Strings (2001)
Shadows (2000)
This Is Harry Lehman (1999)