Sherwood "Woody" Omens, professor and head of the cinematography program in the School of Cinema-Television, has been elected president of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC).

"My goals are to complete the work of my predecessors, and to develop educational initiatives designed to help keep our members and other filmmakers on the cutting edge of the convergence of film and digital technologies," Omens said.

Omens began his career shooting documentaries, one of which, Somebody Waiting, received an Oscar nomination in 1972. His narrative feature credits include History of the World: Part I (1981), Coming to America (1988) and Harlem Nights (1989).

During the mid-1970s, he began shooting and then directing TV commercials. Omens also filmed 22 movies of the week during a 10-year span beginning in 1979. He earned six Emmy nominations and won three consecutive times, beginning in 1986 with An Early Frost, followed by Heart of the City and I Saw What You Did.

Omens is a native of Chicago who followed through on a childhood dream of becoming an artist. He began taking Saturday classes at the Art Institute in Chicago at the age of 16, and later earned a degree with a major in painting.

During the 1960s, when Omens was teaching art and painting, he was asked to submit photographs of his work to a juried exhibit. That motivated him to begin taking still pictures. He soon segued into motion picture photography using his father's 16mm Key- stone camera. Omens began teaching full time at USC in 1990 at the peak of his film career, then took one year off to shoot Boomerang (1992). He also was producer for the ASC on the American Film Institute's documentary about cinematography, Visions of Light (1992).

"I love teaching future filmmakers, and seeing them grow and make contributions," he said. "That doesn't mean I'll never shoot a film again, but it would take a script which really motivates me and uses visuals to tell a meaningful story."

In a 1987 magazine article, Omens expressed his thoughts about cinematography:

"There are times when an image communicates something that words can't. Even if you are Charles Dickens, it is very hard to write words which describe the quality of a beam of sunlight penetrating a window. ...

"Ultimately when we make a movie, we are talking about communicating ideas, feelings and human experience, and words alone are a very limited way of trying to do this. The best scripts think in terms of images."

ASC, founded in 1919 to advance the art and craft of cinematography and the cinema, is the oldest organization of its type in the industry. Membership is by invitation based on an individual's body of work.

The organization has 205 active members around the world, and 104 associates in allied professions.