Richard Matthews of Cape Town-based Wild Images won an Emmy at the 32nd Annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards held on 26 September in New York.
Says Matthews, who triumphed in the Cinematography category as a part of National Geographic’s series Great Migrations: “It’s a great honour and brilliant news. But I was only one of a number of cameramen on the series. Well done to all my fellow cameramen – but also to all the production team and the series producer David Hamlin who made the images look a million dollars in the final programmes.
“The shoot was particularly memorable because I had a very close encounter with an elephant seal in the Falkland Islands which nearly took my arm off but instead vented its anger on my camera. So – a broken camera, a great yarn and an award – I’d do it all again like a shot!”
This is Matthews’ fifth EMMY win.
Great Migrations also won Emmys for Best Music and Sound. Matthews and Wild Images contributed to shooting aerials in more of the difficult and remote locations in the series such as Mali.
The Emmy ceremony was attended by more than 900 television and news media industry executives, news and documentary producers and journalists. Awards were presented in 42 categories, such as Outstanding Nature Programming, Best Documentary, and Best Historical Programming. The Lifetime Achievement Award went to Larry King.
