Through the Lens of History

Erik Daarstad is one of the world's great cinematographers. In a distinguished career spanning nearly 60 years and hundreds of award-winning motion pictures, the skill, beauty and sensitivity of his cinematography has become legend. This autobiography tells of not only his personal story and long career in the movies, but also follows the sweep of history through 80 years of a life fully lived. Born in 1935 in a small village in Norway, Daarstad's earliest memories are of the Nazi occupation of his homeland during World War II. Developing a fascination with photography and filmmaking as a teenager, he came to Los Angeles in 1954 to pursue an amazing career that has made Daarstad a witness to more than half a century of historic events and fascinating personalities. The book describes his love of movies and moviemaking as well as the many remarkable people he met along the way. They include sitting presidents Lyndon Johnson and Ronald Reagan, Robert Kennedy during his run for the presidency, Adlai Stevenson as U.N. Ambassador, artists and musicians including composer Aaron Copeland, Jane Goodall among the chimpanzees in Africa, and movie stars such as Paul Newman, John Wayne, Kim Novak and Natalie Wood. Daarstad's work on hundreds of documentaries took him around the nation and the world, as he filmed on locations from America's Deep South, to Greenland, Africa, South America and more. His work was intertwined with the history of those decades as he recorded aspects of the civil rights struggle, the Cold War, the assassinations in the 1960s, the hippie movement, the Vietnam War and the Iraq War. Daarstad's 1968 documentary, "Why Man Creates," won an Academy Award; seven other films he worked on were nominated for Oscars as well. "The skill, beauty and sensitivity of Erik's cinematography has become legend," says the director and two-time Academy Award winner Terry Sanders. "This book is a wonderful treasure."