Within weeks of receiving his Master's degree from the University of Texas in 1973, Daniel Pearl photographed The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a legendary independent feature that has been widely emulated. He spent the next several years shooting low-budget fright flicks with high production values, most notably She Came to the Valley, Zapped, and Invaders from Mars.

Pearl began shooting music videos during the early 1980s, initially to fill the spaces in-between narrative film projects. But his use of narrative storytelling - exemplified by "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson - breathed life into the music video art form. Pearl's work quickly became the benchmark for all music videos. He won the inaugural MTV Award for Best Cinematography in 1984 for "Every Breath You Take" by The Police, and again in 1992 for "November Rain" by Guns & Roses. Pearl has earned eight MTV Video Music Award nominations - most recently for "Take a Picture" by Filter in 2000.

His contemporary work includes collaborations with Hype Williams, Billie Woodruff, Paul Hunter, Marcus Nispel, F.Gary Gray and Rebecca Blake. Pearl's easily recognizable and highly influential reel is dotted with Grammy winners and the biggest names in the music industry, including: Mariah Carey, Garth Brooks, Toni Braxton, R. Kelly, Meatloaf, The Fugees, Aerosmith, Shania Twain and Janet Jackson.

Having photographed over two hundred commercials, Pearl also manages to create some of the advertising industry's best images - earning industry-wide acclaim for his work on Motorola's "Wings" spot, which as the AICP Honoree for Commercial Cinematography in 1999, is now part of the permanent collection of the New York Museum of Modern Art.