Born in
Copenhagen, Denmark, Salomon is of
Jewish descent on one parent's side. 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 some
blockbuster films like
Always,
Backdraft, and
Far and Away. 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. == Filmography ==