Amnon Salomon was a leading cinematographer in Israeli film from the late 1960s and for the next four decades, until his death in 2011. Born and raised in Tel Aviv, Salomon grew up right next door to the city’s legendary (and now long-gone) Eden Cinema where his passion for filmmaking first started. He took his earliest steps in the industry, cutting his teeth as a 1st AC in some of the period’s biggest films including El Dorado, shot by Nissim Leon (Menahem Golan, 1963), Dalia and the Sailors, shot by Harry Waxman (Menahem Golan, 1964), and Hole in the Moon, shot by David Gurfinkel (Uri Zohar, 1965).
During the Six-Day War, whilst serving as a reservist, Salomon met artist and director Jacques Mory-Katmor who would become one of his regular, long-term collaborators. After the war, in 1969, he shot Katmor’s avant-garde film, Case of a Woman, that is considered one of the most prominent examples of the New Sensibility movement and the shift to a more personal style of filmmaking that emerged in Israel towards the end of the 1960s. Salomon was a member of avant-garde art collective The Third Eye, which Katmor had started.
Alongside his many arthouse credits, Salomon also shot more than his share of commercial films. Some of his higher-profile mainstream credits include But Where is Daniel Wax (Avraham Heffner, 1972), Charlie and a Half (Boaz Davidson, 1974), Alex is Lovesick [aka ‘Alex holeh ahavah’) (Boaz Davidson, 1986), One of Us (Uri Barbash, 1989), and Beyond the Walls (1984) that earned an Oscar Nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and won the Critics’ Week Award at the Venice Film Festival. On the heels of those triumphs, Salomon became one of the most influential figures that helped shape the look and feel of Israeli film, especially in the 1970s and eighties.
Highlights of Salomon’s other DP credits include The War After the War, co-shot with Yehiel Ne’eman (Micha Shagrir, 1969), Marriage Games (Joel Silberg, 1973), Sarit (George Obadiah, 1974), Tzanani Family (Boaz Davidson, 1976), Lupo Goes to New York (1976), It’s a Funny, Funny World (Tzvi Shissel, 1978), Wrong Number (Ze’ev Revach, 1979), A Message From the Future (David Avidan, 1981), Hot Bubblegum (Boaz Davidson, 1981), Mr. Leon (Ze’ev Revach, 1982), The Ladies’ Hairdresser (Ze’ev Revach, 1984), On a Narrow Bridge (Nissim Dayan, 1985), Into the Night (Eitan Green, 1985), Once We were Dreamers (Uri Barbash, 1987), Lend me Your Wife (Ze’ev Revach, 1989), April Fool [sic] (Menahem Zilberman, 1989), Abba Ganuv 2 [‘mad dad 2’] (Avi Cohen, 1989), Where Eagles Fly (1990), The Day we Met (Sam Firstenberg, 1990), Cup Final (Eran Riklis, 1991), Double Edge (Amos Kollek, 1992), Beyond the Walls II (Uri Barbash, 1992), As Tears Go By (Eitan Green, 1996), Buskila Twins (Ze’ev Revach, 1998), Tzur Hadassim [aka ‘Zur Haddasim’] (Gideon Kolirin, 1999), She’s Not 17 (Isaac Zepel Yeshurun, 2003), and King of Beggars (Uri Paster, 2007).
Salomon won two Ophir Awards throughout his career: A 2003 Lifetime Achievement Award, and an award for Best Cinematography which he took home in 2010 for his work on Dover Kosashvili’s film, Infiltration.
