Biography

Stephen H. Burum was born on November 25, 1939 in Visalia, California, USA. He is a cinematographer, known for Hoffa (1992), The Untouchables (1987) and The War of the Roses (1989).

Cinematographer of many Brian De Palma films.

Between 1984 and 2000, he was the regular cinematographer of Brian De Palma, except in Wise Guys (1986) and The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990).

Member of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) since 1974.

Art has never been respected in the United States, probably because the people who settled this country were Puritans, and if something didn't have to do with survival, it was considered frivolous. When I was in college, theater-arts majors were thought of as no-good beatniks, and that kind of thinking is still pretty pervasive. But every art, like every sport, has a skill behind it. In some arts that skill is apparent, but filmmakers are like magicians - you're not supposed to see the trick.