Michael Hammon was born on March 3, 1955, in Johannesburg, South Africa. After studying painting and photography at the Academy of Arts in Cape Town, he has been enrolled at the Academy of Film and Television in Berlin from 1985 until 1991. He worked as a cinematographer for Detlev Buck ("Eine Rolle Duschen", 1987) and Dietmar Klein ("Solinger Rudi", 1991), and soon began making his own movies, e.g. "The Mohale Street Brothers" (1989). For his accomplishments as the director of "Wheels and Deals" (1991), he was awarded the Grimme Prize. Furthermore, he won several awards for "Hillbrow Kids" (1999), a documentary about South African street kids. Hammon directed the movie together with Jacqueline Görgen.

As cinematographer, Hammon drew attention for his collaboration with Pepe Danquart. In 1998, his work on "Nach Saison" ("Off Season", 1997), a movie about the city of Mostar after the end of the Yugoslav war, won him the German Camera Prize. Further movies include the sports documentaries "Heimspiel" (2000) and "Höllentour" ("Hell on Wheels", 2004), in which he depicted the Tour de France in spectacular images. He worked as a cameraman for Eoin Moore"s movie "Conamara" (2000), and shot several films with Andreas Dresen, including "Die Polizistin" ("The Policewoman"), for which he was awarded both the German Camera Prize and the Grimme Prize in 2001. Their latest collaboration, "Willenbrock" (2005), earned him a nomination for the German Film Award 2006.