Mikael Salomon

Mikael Salomon (born 24 February 1945) is a Danish cinematographer, director and producer of film and television. After a long cinematography career in Danish cinema, he transitioned to the Hollywood film industry in the late 1980s,  earning two Academy Award nominations. He is also a television director whose credits include dozens of series, films and miniseries including Band of Brothers, Salem's Lot, Rome, and The Andromeda Strain. His awards and nominations include a Primetime Emmy Award and a Directors Guild of America Award.

Life and career
Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Salomon photographed dozens of films in his native country, earning awards including the Robert Award and Bodil Awards. In the late 1980s, he relocated to Hollywood and shot his first mainstream American film with Torch Song Trilogy, a 1988 comedy-drama starring Harvey Fierstein, Anne Bancroft, and Matthew Broderick. The following year, he shot the James Cameron-helmed science fiction film The Abyss, a film that helped to pioneer the field of computer-generated visual effects. Salomon used three cameras in watertight housings that were specially designed. Another special housing was designed for scenes that went from above-water dialogue to below-water dialogue. The filmmakers had to figure out how to keep the water clear enough to shoot and dark enough to look realistic at 2,000 feet (700 m), which was achieved by floating a thick layer of plastic beads in the water and covering the top of the tank with an enormous tarpaulin. His work on the film earned Salomon a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography.

In the following years, Salomon shot several blockbuster films like Always, Backdraft, and Far and Away, collaborating with directors like Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard.

In 1993, Salomon directed A Far Off Place, an adventure drama film filmed on location in Namibia and Zimbabwe, replacing original director René Manzor after being recommended to producer Kathleen Kennedy by Steven Spielberg. That same year, he directed an episode of the short-lived science fiction series Space Rangers, beginning a career as a television director. In 1998, he directed the Emmy-nominated Aftershock: Earthquake in New York, the first in many television miniseries which Salomon would helm. The most notable of these was Band of Brothers, a 10-part series executive produced by Spielberg for which Salomon won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special and a Christopher Award.

Since then, Salomon has over thirty-five programs, including the miniseries adaptations of The Andromeda Strain and Coma broadcast on the A&E Network.

Personal life
Salomon is of Jewish descent on one parent's side.

Film
Short film

Documentary works
Film

Short film

Television
TV movies

Miniseries

Director
Film
 * A Far Off Place (1993)
 * Hard Rain (1998)
 * Freezer (2014) (Direct-to-video)
 * Instrument of Hope (2020) (Documentary short)

Awards and nominations
Academy Awards

American Society of Cinematographers

BAFTA Awards

Directors Guild of America

Primetime Emmy Awards

Other awards