Stephen H. Burum

Member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) since 1974.

Art has never been respected in the United States, probably because the people who settled this country were Puritans, and if something didn't have to do with survival, it was considered frivolous. When I was in college, theater-arts majors were thought of as no-good beatniks, and that kind of thinking is still pretty pervasive. But every art, like every sport, has a skill behind it. In some arts that skill is apparent, but filmmakers are like magicians - you're not supposed to see the trick.