DR1 Daily News - Dominican Republic

One of the best film photography directors of all times in the Dominican Republic, 72-year old Claudio Chea Ariza passed away unexpectedly before dawn on Wednesday, 13 July 2022 of heart failure. He was hospitalized at the Clinica Abreu where he was programmed for a major heart operation in the early morning.

He studied at the New York Institute of Photography. In 1972 he was hired to work as assistant photography director for the movie, “Order to Kill” (1972), directed by Jose Maeso. In 1974, he got a second break when he worked as assistant cameraman to Gordon Willis in the filming in Santo Domingo of scenes for The Godfather II, directed by Francis Ford Coppola. He would later join Guede Films as director of photography and worked for major television advertisements for the local markets of Guatemala, El Salvador, Miami and other US cities.

He opened his own...