Biography
Chris Menges (also credited as Christopher J. Menges or Christopher Menges) is a British cinematographer and film director. Born on 15 September 1940 in Kington, Herefordshire, England, he began his career in the 1960s as a camera operator on documentaries, including work with Adrian Cowell for Granada Television’s World in Action, and on features such as Poor Cow (1967) and If.... (1968). Kes (1969), directed by Ken Loach, was his first feature as cinematographer.
Menges has collaborated repeatedly with Ken Loach and others including Bill Forsyth, for whom he shot Local Hero (1983). He won Academy Awards for Best Cinematography for The Killing Fields (1984) and The Mission (1986), both directed by Roland Joffé, and received further Oscar nominations for Michael Collins (1996) and The Reader (2008). He is a member of the British Society of Cinematographers and the American Society of Cinematographers. Menges has also directed features, beginning with A World Apart (1988).
