Discussion on Zaher Jureidini’s article “The Large Format Digital Sensor and its impact on Film Language” – Rolf Coulanges

Rolf Coulanges first studied philosophy with Georg Picht, then went on to study at the Film and Television Academy in Berlin Film, and since 1979 has worked as a freelance Director of Photography for documentaries and feature films. As a director and cameraman, he has made several documentary films, mostly in Latin America, including the film Sacy Perere, which was awarded “Outstanding Film of the Year” by the British Society of Cinematographers at the London Film Festival in 1985.

From 1988 to 1998, he taught for the Goethe-Institut at film institutes in various African countries as well as in Brazil and Mexico. In Germany, he taught camera for several years at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb) and the Film Academy Ludwigsburg, and he has been a regular guest professor at the International Film Academy in San Antonio (EICTV), Cuba, since 1992. He teaches there at the Catedra Fotografía, which he also directed from 1999 to 2005.

In 2001, he was appointed tenured Professor for Image Design and Lighting in Film at the Stuttgart Media University, where he was responsible for Film and Digital Cinematography until his retirement in 2010. The HdM also marks the beginning of his research into the development of digital film cameras and, in conjunction with Arnold & Richter (ARRI, Munich), the use of the first digital cameras (Arriflex D20 and D21) in the university’s scenic productions.

Since returning to Berlin in 2011, Rolf Coulanges has been working as a freelance Director of Cinematography and teaching in the fields of classical and digital film photography, for example as professor for cinematography at EICTV, at the Hamburg Media School for postgraduate professionals, and at film institutes in Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar. He is the author of publications on light design in Murnau’s SUNRISE, on the photography of the cinematographers Michael Ballhaus, Renato Berta, Raoul Coutard, and Robby Müller, and on fundamental questions of image design in digital cinematography. In addition to working on a documentary film, he is currently working on a research project for the development of creative tools in digital image development within the international framework of IMAGO.

As a filmmaker, he is particularly interested in documentaries which focus on the politics and culture of Latin America, Africa, and Asia, as well as in experimental films about music and dance and its history.

Rolf Coulanges has been a member of the Executive Board of the German Society of Cinematographers since 1996 and from 2015 to 2020 a member of the Executive Board of IMAGO, the international umbrella association of camera associations