William F. Carlson
- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Writer
Bill Carlson was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. From an early age,
Bill was determined to follow in the footsteps of his hero, Jacques
Cousteau. From the age of thirteen, Bill took the 45-minute bus ride
across town to work in the St. Paul Dive shop, Midwest Skin Diving. It
was there where his first mentor, diver Gene Betz, who also happened to
be a commercial photographer, introduced Bill to what would become his
twin passions, diving and photography. Several years later, Bill landed
a job as a photographer for Merle Morris, an elite photographic studio
in Minneapolis. After graduating from high school, Bill took his Nikons
and portfolio and moved to Honolulu, Hawaii, where he worked in
advertising photography and production. Assessing the arc of his career
in photography, Bill is most proud of his still work from the refugee
camps in Thailand and from the former Soviet Union, for which he was
honored with a show at the Larson Gallery in Minneapolis.
Never one to follow conventions, Bill developed a taste for speed, and became the only professional racecar driver in history to simultaneously work as a commercial photographer. Having raced all across North America, Bill's 15-year-long career in open-wheel formula cars, oval-track stock cars, and off-road competitions is a chapter he contemplates revisiting.
In the mid-80s, Bill made the transition from still photography to cinematography, and has been the Director of Photography on numerous commercials, films and documentaries. His clients include CNN, National Geographic, Canal Plus, France's TF1, Madrid's TVE, Japan's NHK, PBS, Coca Cola USA, Yamaha Motor Corporation, and IDS American Express. His most recent film is the PBS documentary America's Lost Landscape: The Tall Grass Prairie, which was narrated by Annabeth Gish.
Active in scuba diving since 1958, Bill is also a PADI Dive master. Beyond his film work under the ice and in shipwrecks, he has been a trained cave diver since 1986, having extensive experience exploring and filming in the underwater cave systems of Mexico and northern Florida. He is a long-time member of the team credited with establishing the world record of explored underwater cave passage (43,800 feet), as recorded in the 1992 Guinness Book of Records. That record has been pushed to over 200,000 feet in recent explorations.
Bill currently resides by Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota, where he lives with his two children and life partner, Denise.
Never one to follow conventions, Bill developed a taste for speed, and became the only professional racecar driver in history to simultaneously work as a commercial photographer. Having raced all across North America, Bill's 15-year-long career in open-wheel formula cars, oval-track stock cars, and off-road competitions is a chapter he contemplates revisiting.
In the mid-80s, Bill made the transition from still photography to cinematography, and has been the Director of Photography on numerous commercials, films and documentaries. His clients include CNN, National Geographic, Canal Plus, France's TF1, Madrid's TVE, Japan's NHK, PBS, Coca Cola USA, Yamaha Motor Corporation, and IDS American Express. His most recent film is the PBS documentary America's Lost Landscape: The Tall Grass Prairie, which was narrated by Annabeth Gish.
Active in scuba diving since 1958, Bill is also a PADI Dive master. Beyond his film work under the ice and in shipwrecks, he has been a trained cave diver since 1986, having extensive experience exploring and filming in the underwater cave systems of Mexico and northern Florida. He is a long-time member of the team credited with establishing the world record of explored underwater cave passage (43,800 feet), as recorded in the 1992 Guinness Book of Records. That record has been pushed to over 200,000 feet in recent explorations.
Bill currently resides by Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota, where he lives with his two children and life partner, Denise.