H.E. “Chick” Fowle BSC was a prolific and accomplished British cinematographer whose career spanned some of the most important years in the development of British documentary filmmaking and, later, the emerging feature-film industry of Brazil.
Fowle began working in the mid-1930s with the GPO Film Unit, where he became part of the remarkable group of filmmakers who transformed British documentary cinema. Among his most celebrated early credits was Night Mail (1936), directed by Harry Watt and Basil Wright. The film, with its innovative combination of documentary observation, carefully composed cinematography, poetry, music and sound, became one of the landmark works of the British documentary movement.
During the Second World War, Fowle continued his work with the Crown Film Unit, photographing a succession of influential documentary films. His credits included Christmas Under Fire (1941) and the celebrated Listen to Britain (1942), directed by Humphrey Jennings and Stewart McAllister. He also worked on The Silent Village (1943) and other productions that demonstrated his ability to capture both the atmosphere of everyday life and the visual character of Britain during wartime.
After the war, Fowle moved increasingly into feature cinematography, photographing a number of low-budget British productions from around 1950 onwards. His experience in documentary filmmaking had given him a strong command of location photography, naturalistic lighting and the visual depiction of ordinary people and environments.
A major turning point in Fowle's career came when the Brazilian-born filmmaker Alberto Cavalcanti, who had established a reputation in Britain through his work at Ealing Studios under producer Michael Balcon, was invited to help develop Brazil's fledgling feature-film industry. Cavalcanti was determined to take experienced British technicians with him, and Fowle was among those he selected.
Fowle subsequently travelled to Brazil and became an important cinematographer in the country's developing film industry. He worked principally with Companhia Cinematográfica Vera Cruz, the ambitious São Paulo-based studio established in the late 1940s with the aim of creating a sophisticated Brazilian cinema capable of competing internationally. His experience in British documentary filmmaking proved particularly valuable, and his cinematography brought a strong sense of realism and visual authenticity to the Brazilian productions on which he worked.
Among Fowle's Brazilian credits were Caiçara (1950), Terra É Sempre Terra (1951), Tico-Tico no Fubá (1952), O Cangaceiro (1953), O Sobrado (1956) and O Pagador de Promessas (1962). His photography of O Cangaceiro, directed by Lima Barreto, was particularly notable. The film became one of the best-known Brazilian productions of its period and won the Best Adventure Film award at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival.
Fowle remained in Brazil for the remainder of his professional career, making a substantial contribution to the country's feature-film industry. His career was unusual in spanning the pioneering British documentary movement of the 1930s and 1940s and the formative years of Brazilian feature cinema in the 1950s and 1960s.
Remembered by colleagues as “Chick” Fowle, he was a cinematographer whose career connected two very different film cultures. From the trains and wartime streets of Britain in films such as Night Mail and Listen to Britain to the landscapes, people and stories of Brazilian cinema, his work reflected a lifelong ability to photograph real places and real people with clarity, atmosphere and visual intelligence.
H.E. “Chick” Fowle died in 1995, leaving behind a body of work that forms a distinctive link between the British documentary tradition and the emergence of modern Brazilian cinema.