Photography must be integrated with the story.

He was nominated for ten Academy Awards for cinematography winning twice. His two Academy Awards both came during the period when Best Cinematography Oscars were awarded separately for color and black-and-white films. To reestablish himself Howe first co-financed a Japanese-language feature shot in Southern California entitled Chijiku wo mawasuru chikara (The Force that Turns the Earth around its Axis) which he also photographed and co-directed.

A master at the use of shadow he was one of the first to use deep-focus cinematography photography in which both foreground and distant planes remain in focus. James Wong Howe A. S.