If you don’t know the name Bradford Young by now, you soon will. The 37-year old cinematographer had quite the year in 2014, lensing two of the holiday season’s most acclaimed films: Ava DuVernay’s “Selma” and J.C. Chandor’s “A Most Violent Year.”
I remember seeing his name on the 2011 Sundance smash “Pariah,” but the first time I really took notice of his work was in 2013's “Ain’t Them Bodies Saints.” The film itself is a wonky, lovers-on-the-run murder ballad with a surplus of Malick-esque voiceover, but Young’s images stuck with me: of Casey Affleck’s mud-caked torso after he escapes from prison, of sun-kissed vistas rippling with shards of gleaming light, of the dank and darkened interior of a sinister watering hole where character actor Nate Parker is the proprietor. The images he creates feel natural and real while also possessing an undeniable propensity for myth and awe.
Young lent his considerable gifts for immediacy and texture to both “Selma” and “A Most Violent...
