ARLENE NELSON, ASC

With an eye for capturing the exquisite in ordinary moments, in both real and imagined worlds, Arlene Nelson’s cinematography has led to collaborations with iconic directors. Christopher Guest, Ava DuVernay, Cesar winner Agnes Varda, and Academy Award winners Louie Psihoyos, Paola Di Florio, and Morgan Neville are among the visionary directors that maintain a passion and singular vision with whom Arlene has collaborated. 

Whether shooting narrative films, documentary features, or commercial campaigns, Arlene’s camera work and lighting reflect a naturalistic, organic quality, conveying passion, beauty, and sometimes the absurdity of the human experience.  An intrepid traveler, Arlene has filmed on every continent across the globe from traversing the snowcapped Himalayas in India or navigating the warm wetlands in Brazil, to camping on the frozen Antarctic Peninsula.

Arlene’s work has been screened before the U.S. Congress and featured on NETFLIX, HBO, AMAZON, APPLE TV, SHOWTIME, PBS, CBS, and NBC. Her most recent work is a series for NBC, created by Ava DuVernay, called “Home Sweet Home”, where she served as Lead DP/Creative Producer over two field teams and Co-Director/DP on an A&E series titled, “The Secrets of Playboy”, now airing. 

Arlene has received several awards for her cinematography, including an Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Cinematography for her work on Academy Award winner Morgan Neville’s, Troubadours, an American Masters documentary on the singer-songwriter tradition, featuring Carole King and James Taylor. 

A new member of the American Society of Cinematographers and member of the Television Academy for more than a decade, Nelson has guest lectured at USC, UCLA, SFSU; she has also served on Television Academy and film festival juries and panels. Since 2010, she sits on the International Advisory Board for Global Girl Media, a digital journalism platform dedicated to empowering young women.

When Arlene is not shooting, she can be found sailing, playing ping pong, or eating her husband’s homemade sourdough pizza in Los Angeles. They are proud parents of a daughter who is a freshman studying Photography at Pratt Institute in Arlene’s original hometown of Brooklyn.