Petra grew up between Vienna, Austria and the Southwest of France. Drawn to cinematography from an early age, she moved to New York City to study film at NYU’s Tisch School of Arts, from which she graduated with a BFA. She went on to receive additional training at the Czech National Film Academy (FAMU) in Prague, and the Maine Photographic Workshops.
After a few years of working in both the camera- and the lighting departments, she obtained her MFA in Cinematography from the prestigious American Film Institute (AFI) in LA.
American feature films Petra has shot include “The Wackness” (Sony Picture Classics), starring Sir Ben Kingsley, Famke Jansen and Mary-Kate Olsen; Gregor Jordan’s “The Informers” (Senator), starring Kim Basinger, Billy-Bob Thornton, Winona Ryder, Amber Heard and Mickey Rourke, iconic horror-film director Wes Craven’s “My Soul To Take” for Universal, Joe Chappelle's political thriller "An Acceptable Loss", starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Tika Sumpter, as well as critically acclaimed “The Road Dance”. International films have taken her to places like Southern Mexico, Ghana’s Ashanti territories, Panama’s Kuna Yala islands, the Austrian and Italian Alps, India’s Maharashtra province, the Arabian desert, or the Outer Hebrides of Scotland.
Petra’s commercial and narrative work has earned her multiple “Best Cinematography” awards. Four of her feature films have been in competition at the Sundance Film Festival, two of which took home the Dramatic Audience Award.
For her achievement in cinematography, Petra was also awarded with the Kodak Vision Award at the WIF Awards in Hollywood, next to fellow honorees Elisabeth Banks, Holly Hunter, Jennifer Aniston and director Catherine Hardwicke. Petra’s name was up first up on Variety’s “Ten Cinematographers to Watch” list that year.
Petra has lived in New York, Paris, London, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Vienna. More than two decades of globe-trotting have left her perfectly trilingual in German, French and English, and also pretty fluent in Spanish. While being based out of Europe again, she continues to work as a local in both Los Angeles and New York, and shoots high-end commercials, TV dramas and feature films all over the world.
Petra is a voting member of the British Academy, BAFTA, a member of the International Cinematographers Guild Hollywood, as well as the AAC (Austrian Society of Cinematographers).
She is represented by Innovative Artists in Los Angeles.