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The MVP cinematographer in American independent cinema for more than 40 years running, Elmes is behind some of the most transcendent images in the films of such luminaries as David Lynch—an AFI Conservatory classmate—Jim Jarmusch, Ang Lee, and others. We bring together here six of Elmes’s most ravishing works, together with two of his chosen inspirations, Cries and Whispers (1972) and Tess (1979). An intuitive and endlessly resourceful artist, Elmes describes his approach thusly: “I don’t really have a filmmaking philosophy I live by, but in my favorite scene in Wild At Heart, Lula and Sailor, broke, on the run, and with only bad news on the radio, leave their car on the side of the road, dance wildly and embrace, silhouetted by the setting sun. In that fleeting moment, we relinquished control, relied on instinct, and captured the ineffable.”