cover image Light Years

Light Years

Tom McDonough. Grove/Atlantic, $0 (258pp) ISBN 978-0-8021-0014-6

McDonough laments that cinematography is an invisible profession, its craft and contribution largely unsung. But this shapeless autobiographical narrative, consisting mostly of self-consciously hip, on-site vignettes with titles like ""Tender Is the Light'' and ``Deep Wrist,'' could have been much more illuminating about the cinematographer's art. McDonough, who photographed the movies Best Boy and The Day After Trinity, writes about the energy transfer between cameraman and subject and the artistic standards that such perfectionists as Gordon Willis, Nestor Almendros and James Wong Howe bring to their work. He also sets down his thoughts on video, 3-D, fishing and the relationship between American painting and Hollywood films. The action shuttles from a political demonstration in New Delhi to the shooting of The Muppets Take Manhattan in Central Park. (November)