Camera

Ken Kelsch

Born July 8, 1947 · Brooklyn, New York, USA

Died December 11, 2023 · aged 76

Kenneth Arthur Kelsch (July 8, 1947 – December 11, 2023) was an American cinematographer. He was best known for his guerilla filmmaking style and his career-spanning partnership with filmmaker Abel Ferrara, with whom he made more than a dozen films, including The Driller Killer (1979), Bad Lieutenant (1992), Dangerous Game (1993), The Addiction (1995), The Blackout (1997), and Welcome to New York …

Known For

Desert Flower

Desert Flower · 2009

The autobiography of a Somalian nomad who was sold in marriage at 13, fled from Africa a while later to become finally an American supermodel and is now at the age of 38, the UN spokeswoman against female genital mutilation.

It Had to Be You

It Had to Be You · 2000

It Had to Be You

MovieRomanceComedy

Sparks fly when Anna Penn and Charlie Hudson meet. Unfortunately, they're both engaged to other people. In fact, they're staying at the same New York City hotel in order to work on wrapping up the last details of their nuptials. Over days and evenings of joint wedding planning, the two grow closer -- and start to wonder if they're getting married to the right people after all.

Bad Lieutenant

Bad Lieutenant · 1992

MovieCrimeDrama

While investigating a young nun's rape, a corrupt New York City police detective, with a serious drug and gambling addiction, tries to change his ways and find forgiveness.

Big Night

Big Night · 1996

MovieDramaRomance

Primo and Secondo, two immigrant brothers, pin their hopes on a banquet honoring Louis Prima to save their struggling restaurant.

The Impostors

The Impostors · 1998

Wrongly accused of physically abusing a fellow actor, starving thespians Arthur and Maurice find themselves pursued by the law aboard a cruise ship.

Rear Window

Rear Window · 1998

MovieDramaThriller

Jason Kemp, a recently paralyzed architect, lives in a high-tech apartment filled with assistive technology. As a quadriplegic confined to his home, he passes the long hours by spying on his neighbors from his apartment window. His innocent pastime takes a deadly turn when he believes he witnesses a murder. Determined to uncover the truth, Jason continues to dig deeper - eventually finding himself locked in a deadly game of cat and mouse.

4:44 Last Day on Earth

4:44 Last Day on Earth · 2012

4:44 Last Day on Earth

MovieDramaScience Fiction

A look at how a painter and a successful actor spend their last day together before the world comes to an end.

The Funeral

The Funeral · 1996

MovieCrimeDrama

After the funeral of one of their own, a criminal family decides to embark on an emotionally unnerving journey in an attempt to exact bloody revenge.

Filmography

Sort

Desert Flower

Desert Flower · 2009

The autobiography of a Somalian nomad who was sold in marriage at 13, fled from Africa a while later to become finally an American supermodel and is now at the age of 38, the UN spokeswoman against female genital mutilation.

Director of Photography

It Had to Be You

It Had to Be You · 2000

It Had to Be You

MovieRomanceComedy

Sparks fly when Anna Penn and Charlie Hudson meet. Unfortunately, they're both engaged to other people. In fact, they're staying at the same New York City hotel in order to work on wrapping up the last details of their nuptials. Over days and evenings of joint wedding planning, the two grow closer -- and start to wonder if they're getting married to the right people after all.

Director of Photography

Bad Lieutenant

Bad Lieutenant · 1992

MovieCrimeDrama

While investigating a young nun's rape, a corrupt New York City police detective, with a serious drug and gambling addiction, tries to change his ways and find forgiveness.

Director of Photography

Big Night

Big Night · 1996

MovieDramaRomance

Primo and Secondo, two immigrant brothers, pin their hopes on a banquet honoring Louis Prima to save their struggling restaurant.

Director of Photography

The Impostors

The Impostors · 1998

Wrongly accused of physically abusing a fellow actor, starving thespians Arthur and Maurice find themselves pursued by the law aboard a cruise ship.

Director of Photography

Rear Window

Rear Window · 1998

MovieDramaThriller

Jason Kemp, a recently paralyzed architect, lives in a high-tech apartment filled with assistive technology. As a quadriplegic confined to his home, he passes the long hours by spying on his neighbors from his apartment window. His innocent pastime takes a deadly turn when he believes he witnesses a murder. Determined to uncover the truth, Jason continues to dig deeper - eventually finding himself locked in a deadly game of cat and mouse.

Director of Photography

4:44 Last Day on Earth

4:44 Last Day on Earth · 2012

4:44 Last Day on Earth

MovieDramaScience Fiction

A look at how a painter and a successful actor spend their last day together before the world comes to an end.

Director of Photography

The Funeral

The Funeral · 1996

MovieCrimeDrama

After the funeral of one of their own, a criminal family decides to embark on an emotionally unnerving journey in an attempt to exact bloody revenge.

Director of Photography

The Addiction

The Addiction · 1995

MovieDramaHorror

A vampiric doctoral student tries to follow the philosophy of a nocturnal comrade and control her thirst for blood.

Director of Photography

Welcome to New York

Welcome to New York · 2014

Welcome to New York

Mr. Devereaux is a powerful man. A man who handles billions of dollars every day. A man who controls the economic fate of nations. A man driven by a frenzied and unbridled sexual hunger. A man who dreamed of saving the world and who cannot save himself. A terrified man. A lost man.

Director of Photography

Montana

Montana · 1998

MovieDramaAction

A seasoned enforcer is given the seemingly routine task of finding the Boss's runaway mistress, Kitty. However Kitty is involved in plans to overthrow the Boss and this routine task gets very complicated.

Director of Photography

100 Feet

100 Feet · 2008

After Marnie Watson kills her abusive husband in self-defense, she is condemned to house arrest... only to discover that the house is possessed by the enraged and violent spirit of her dead husband.

Director of Photography

The Blackout

The Blackout · 1997

MovieDramaMystery

A debauched Hollywood movie actor tries to piece together one wild night in Miami years earlier which remains a drug-induced blur, and soon finds out that some questions about his past are best left unanswered.

Director of Photography

The Driller Killer

The Driller Killer · 1979

The Driller Killer

An artist slowly goes insane while struggling to pay his bills, work on his paintings, and care for his two female roommates, which leads him taking to the streets of New York after dark and randomly killing derelicts with a power drill.

Director of Photography

Susan's Plan

Susan's Plan · 1998

MovieComedyCrime

Susan wants her reprehensible ex-husband dead and, in several bungled attempts by henchmen, tries to accomplish the deed.

Director of Photography

Return to Sleepaway Camp

Return to Sleepaway Camp · 2008

Return to Sleepaway Camp

MovieHorrorComedy

When campers and staff at Camp Manabe mysteriously begin disappearing and turning into gruesome corpses, paranoid Ronnie can't shake the memory of a series of grisly murders that took place at Camp Arawak two decades earlier.

Director of Photography

Dangerous Game

Dangerous Game · 1993

MovieDramaThriller

A New York film director, working on his latest movie in Los Angeles, begins to reflect the actions in his movie and real life, especially when he begins an affair with the lead actress.

Director of Photography

'R Xmas

'R Xmas · 2001

MovieDramaCrime

A New York drug dealer is kidnapped, and his wife must try to come up with the money and drugs to free him from his abductors before Christmas.

Director of Photography

New Rose Hotel

New Rose Hotel · 1999

MovieDramaMystery

A corporate raider and his henchman use a chanteuse to lure a scientific genius away from his employer and family.

Director of Photography

Drop Squad

Drop Squad · 1994

MovieDramaComedy

Controversial film about an underground organization that kidnaps and 'deprograms' African Americans who sell out or deny their cultural heritage. Spike Lee is the Executive Producer.

Director of Photography

Don't Go in the House

Don't Go in the House · 1979

Don't Go in the House

As a child, Donald was tormented by his mother who used fire as a punishment. Now a deranged adult, Donald stalks women at clubs, then takes them home where he kills them with a flamethrower.

Before It Had a Name

Before It Had a Name · 2005

Before It Had a Name

MovieDramaRomance

A young Italian woman inherits from her deceased lover an enigmatic modern house in the New York country side, and goes to see it for the first time. When she arrives she meets the caretaker of the house.

Director of Photography

Subway Stories

Subway Stories · 1997

MovieTV MovieComedy

An anthology of 10 stories depicting real-life incidents of subway riders in New York City, which range from compassion and love to violence and loss.

Director of Photography

Every 9 Seconds

Every 9 Seconds · 1997

Every 9 Seconds

MovieDramaTV Movie

Domestic violence drama, with Gail O'Grady as a distraught young mother, finding herself stalked by her newly paroled ex and armed with a loaded gun, and Ami Pietz as a journalist volunteering at a crisis hotline to do an "inside" story.

Director of Photography

Medium

SeriesCrimeDrama

Allison Dubois works in the District Attorney’s office using her natural intuition about people and her ability to communicate with the dead to help to solve crimes. Her dreams often give her clues to the whereabouts of missing people.

Director of Photography