Don Burgess
Don Michael Burgess, ASC (born May 28, 1956) is an American cinematographer, best known for his collaborations with director Robert Zemeckis. He was nominated for the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography for Zemeckis' Forrest Gump (1994). In 2024, he received the American Society of Cinematographers' Lifetime Achievement Award. Burgess comes from a family of builders and initially wanted to be an architect in his youth. His introduction to photography came through his father building a darkroom for his sister since she was in a high school photography class at the time. When in high school, he made ski movies and motorcycle movies. He attended the ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena and cited nature documentarian Mike Hoover as an influence. While attending ArtCenter, he worked as a film loader on William Friedkin's Sorcerer (1977). Burgess spent the first decade of his career shooting various independent and low-budget films, as well as nature documentaries for the National Geographic Channel. In 1987, he shot the full-motion video game Night Trap, which was eventually released in 1992. He was also a second unit cinematographer on Runaway Train (1985), Cherry 2000 (1986), and Back to the Future Part II (1989) & Part III (1990), which brought him into contact with Robert Zemeckis. In 1994, Zemeckis was the main cinematographer on Zemeckis' Forrest Gump, earning Oscar and BAFTA Award nominations for his work. He has subsequently worked with Zemeckis on 10 films, including Contact (1997), Cast Away (2000), and The Polar Express (2004). His work with other directors includes Spider-Man (2002), Enchanted (2007), The Book of Eli (2010), Source Code (2011), The Muppets (2011), 42 (2013), The Conjuring 2 (2016), Aquaman (2018), and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023). On March 3, 2024, Burgess received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Cinematographers. Description above from the Wikipedia article Don Burgess (cinematographer), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Forrest Gump
(Director of Photography)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
(Director of Photography)
Spider-Man
(Director of Photography)
Contact
(Director of Photography)
What Lies Beneath
(Director of Photography)
13 Going on 30
(Director of Photography)
Forget Paris
(Director of Photography)
The Polar Express
(Director of Photography)
My Super Ex-Girlfriend
(Director of Photography)
Enchanted
(Director of Photography)
The Trap
(Director of Photography)
Ri¢hie Ri¢h
(Director of Photography)
The Book of Eli
(Director of Photography)
Cast Away
(Director of Photography)
Eight Below
(Director of Photography)
Fool's Gold
(Director of Photography)
Priest
(Director of Photography)
Source Code
(Director of Photography)
Pinocchio
(Director of Photography)
Blind Fury
(Director of Photography)
Flight
(Director of Photography)
Under the Boardwalk
(Director of Photography)
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
(Director of Photography)
Death Becomes Her
(Second Unit Director of Photography)
The Bourne Identity
(Additional Photography)
Christmas with the Kranks
(Director of Photography)
Runaway Train
(Second Unit Director of Photography)
42
(Director of Photography)
World Gone Wild
(Director of Photography)
Radio
(Director of Photography)
Mo' Money
(Director of Photography)
Death Before Dishonor
(Director of Photography)
The Conjuring 2
(Director of Photography)
Allied
(Director of Photography)
A Family Affair
(Director of Photography)
Happy Birthday to Me
(Camera Operator)
Night Trap
(Director of Photography)
The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two
(Director of Photography)
Wonder
(Director of Photography)
Deep Impact
(Additional Camera)
Skateboarding's First Wave
(Director)
Josh and S.A.M.
(Director of Photography)
Aquaman
(Director of Photography)
Summer Camp Nightmare
(Director of Photography)
Executive Decision
(Additional Photography)
Aliens in the Attic
(Director of Photography)
Roald Dahl's The Witches
(Director of Photography)
Muppets Most Wanted
(Director of Photography)
The Muppets
(Director of Photography)
Here
(Director of Photography)
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1
(Camera Operator)
Divergent
(Camera Operator)
The Avengers
(Additional Photography)
Two-Fisted Tales
(Director of Photography)
Breaking Point
(Director of Photography)
The Christmas Chronicles
(Director of Photography)
Monster Trucks
(Director of Photography)
The Evening Star
(Director of Photography)
Ruckus
(Director of Photography)
Same Kind of Different as Me
(Director of Photography)
Sextuplets
(Director of Photography)
The Night Stalker
(Director of Photography)
Nothing but Trouble
(Second Unit Director of Photography)
Tales from the Crypt
(Director of Photography)