Like many of the great artists of his generation, Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa' s life and vision shaped and was shaped by the historical events that propelled the Mexican nation into modernity after the Revolution of 1910. Born in 1908 in Mexico City, and orphaned in early childhood, he studied painting and photography on his own and found work with a film studio that eventually sent him to the United States to study cinematography for a year with Gregg Toland. Returning to Mexico in 1936, Figueroa began a prolific career. His work spans over six decades of outstanding achievement, both as an artist and a political activist-he cofounded, in 1944, the first independent union of cinema artisans, STPC [Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Produccion Cinematografica], in Mexico, and was blacklisted in the McCarthy era for his support of its victims. His artistic legacy is reflected in more than 200 films, including the most canonical images of Mexican cinema from the Golden Age and after, and in numerous national and international awards. Since his solo debut in the classic, Alla en el Rancho Grande (Over There, on the Big Ranch, Fernando de Fuentes, 1936), Figueroa has worked uninterruptedly with several generations of legendary national and international directors. With Emilio Indio Fernandez, the most important director of Mexican Golden Age cinema (Maria Candelaria and Flor Silvestre, 1943; La perla, 1945; Rio Escondido, 1947; Pueblerina and Salon Mexico, 1948), Figueroa developed that particular blend of expressionistic lighting (chiaroscuro), deep focus, and dramatic composition that became his signature style, a style that joined Renaissance painting with the latest Hollywood techniques and avant-garde experiments of the Mexican visual art movements, muralism, and the graphic arts. Figueroa also collaborated on award-winning productions with Julio Bracho (Distinto amanecer, 1943); John Ford (The Fugitive, 1947); Roberto Gavald6n (Macario, 1959, La rosa blanca, 1961, Dias de otoio, 1962); Luis Bufiuel (Los olvidados, 1950, Nazarin, 1958, The Exterminating Angel, 1962); Ismael Rodriguez (Animas Trujano, 1961, El hombre de papel, 1963); Marcela Fernandez Violante (Cananea, 1976); and John Huston (The Night of the Iguana, 1963, Under the Volcano, 1983). This interview was conducted on 24 February, 1995, in Los Angeles, where Gabriel Figueroa travelled at the invitation of the American Society of Cinematographers to receive its prestigious third Annual International Award, established to recognize excellence in cinematography outside the United States.