Russell Carpenter

Cinematographer. Born 9 December 1950 in Van Nuys, California, USA.

Titles on Fi1m

Average Fi1m score

Oscar1 won

Born

9 December 1950, Van Nuys, California, USA

Active

1994–present

Frequently works with

James Cameron, Jon Landau, Amanda Silver, Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, John August, Kate Winslet, Leonard Goldberg

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Biography

Russell Carpenter, ASC is an American cinematographer. He was born on 9 December 1950 in Van Nuys, California, and studied at San Diego State University.

He is known for his long collaboration with director James Cameron. Their work together includes True Lies (1994) and Titanic (1997), for which Carpenter received the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. He later shot Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) and Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025).

Other credits include Charlie's Angels (2000), Ant-Man (2015) and xXx: Return of Xander Cage (2017). In 2018 he received the American Society of Cinematographers Lifetime Achievement Award.

Compiled from published sources (en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, russellcarpenter.com) · 10 September 2026How we write and check