Erik Daarstad

Erik Daarstad (born June 27, 1935 in Fjotland , Norway ), sometimes mentioned as Eric Daarstad , is a Norwegian-American cameraman .

Life

Daarstad was born in the small mountain village of Fjotland in Norway and grew up in Sandnes on the southwest coast. In 1943 his father was killed in a bomb attack. During high school at the Skavanger katedralskole he developed a fascination for photography and film and in 1954 decided to study camera work at the film school of the University of Southern California (USC). He then wanted to return to Norway and work in film production there, instead he decided to stay in Los Angeles . After graduating from USC in 1957, he worked as a production assistant , camera assistant and gaffer . In January 1958, filming began on Kent Mackenzie's The Exiles , a docudrama about a group of Indians in the Bunker Hill district of Los Angeles, on which Daarstad worked alongside John Morrill and Robert Kaufman as a cameraman and co-producer. He also worked as a cameraman for the United States Army for two years . In 1964 he became a US citizen.

Daarstad began working as a professional cameraman in the early 1960s. He photographed hundreds of films and the spectrum ranged from 30-second commercials to feature films and episodes of well-known television series such as Fame - The Path to Fame or Young Destinies . Most of his work, however, has been featured in documentaries. Six short documentaries that Daarstad photographed were nominated for an Oscar , including The Spirit of America (1964), Four Stones for Kanemitsu (1974), Notes on the Popular Arts (1978), Never Give Up: The 20th Century Odyssey of Herbert Zipper (1996) and Sing! (2001). The film Why Man Creates by Saul Bass won the 1969 Oscar for best short documentary. The films Elvis on Tour (1972) and The Pairings of Animals (1974), in which Daarstad also worked as a cameraman, were awarded the Golden Globe Award for best documentary film or were nominated for it. The film The Great Whales of the series National Geographic Specials in 1978 received a Primetime Emmy Award in the category "Outstanding Informational Special" and 1983 Daarstad was for the episode Have You Ever Been Ashamed of Your Parents? of the ABC series Junge Schicksale nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for best cameraman.

Over the course of his 60-year career, Daarstad has had encounters with Lyndon B. Johnson , Robert F. Kennedy , Ronald Reagan , Adlai Ewing Stevenson Jr. , Aaron Copland , Jane Goodall , Paul Newman , John Wayne , Kim Novak and Natalie Wood . Daarstad worked for the National Geographic Society , Disney , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , the American Film Foundation , Wolper Productions , numerous smaller independent companies and was involved in several productions for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). He turned u. a. in Greenland , South America and Africa . In 2015 he published his autobiography Through the Lens of History: The Life Journey of a Cinematographer .

Daarstad lives in Sandpoint , Idaho with his wife Louanne . The couple has three children. In 2013 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Sand Point Film Festival, which has been taking place since 2006.

literature

Who's Who in the West 1978-1979 , Volume 16, Marquis Who's Who Incorporated, 1978, p. 161

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Daarstad, Erik
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Daarstad, Eric
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Norwegian-American cameraman
DATE OF BIRTH	June 27, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH	Fjotland , Norway