Bio

Emmy-winning director of photography James Hawkinson communicates compelling images for stories and themes via a range of mediums, from television to features to music videos.

Hawkinson shot Amazon Studios’ The Man in the High Castle, for which he received the 2016 Creative Arts Emmy award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series. He also received an American Society of Cinematographers Award nomination for High Castle’s pilot in the Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Television Movie/Mini-Series/Pilot category. He recently lensed the third season of High Castle as well as the pilot for The Enemy Within for NBC.

He is also known for his cinematic elegance on all three seasons of Hannibal, taking home the 2012-2013 Golden Europe Television Award for Outstanding Cinematography for the drama series.

His television credits also include: the pilot for ABC’s Happy Endings; the pilot and complete first season of NBC’s Community; and the iconoclastic pilot and first season of Fox’s Arrested Development.

Hawkinson lensed the features: The Unborn, a supernatural thriller starring Odette Yustman and Gary Oldman; and The Hitcher, a remake of the 1986 film of the same name with director Dave Meyers, starring Sean Bean and Sophia Bush.

An influential figure with pop culture aesthetics, Hawkinson brings new trends in cinematography to his music videos. His work on Aphex Twin’s Windowlicker with director Chris Cunningham is included in the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection. For Deftones’ Minerva, he lit up a quarter mile of the Glamis Sand Dunes for a night shoot, delivering extraordinary images captured during a 65 mph sand storm.

Hawkinson has also worked with notable artists such as: fun.’s We Are Young; Beyonce’s Naughty Girl (2003 MTV VMA nomination for the Kodak Kaleidoscope Award); Missy Elliot’s Git Ur Freak On (MTV VMA nomination for the 2001 Kodak Kaleidoscope Award); and Tool’s Aenema, which earned him the 1998 MVPA Best Cinematography Award.

Seeing the film 2001: A Space Odyssey at the Cinerama Dome, when he was six years old, sparked Hawkinson’s lifelong obsession with motion pictures.

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Hawkinson is represented by DDA.