Vintage Photographic Fine Art Prints
The vintage fine art photographic prints offered exclusively by F-Stop Productions represent an important part of photographer and cinematographer Bill Carlson’s extensive portfolio. Today, Carlson keeps busy with still photography and documentary cinematography as he adds to his worldwide reputation for underwater cave photography and cinematography. In 1965 however, he was an emerging photographic devotee.

The Vintage Photography Story
I was part-time at Merle Morris Studios, and still in school. I remember the Telex coming in a couple of days before the Beatles concert – the press officers were blanketing the area trying to get as much publicity as possible. Basically, there was no interest in the band from the other photographers at Morris. But for me, it just seemed like a cool event and I was scouting around for something interesting to shoot. Capturing this band called the Beatles seemed like a good idea. --Bill Carlson

The Beatles came to Minneapolis Minnesota on August 21, 1965, and seventeen year old Bill Carlson was there to photograph the band. The full story of the Beatles’ 1965 visit is documented in Bill Carlson’s Beatles book: The Beatles! A One-Night Stand in the Heartland. In the fall of 1966 Carlson was hired by a music magazine, Twin Cities A Go-Go, to photograph Louis Armstrong, and the Minnesota concert appearances of the Beach Boys plus Bob Dylan in concert. When Twin Cities A Go-Go went out of business, the vintage negatives and photographic images became the exclusive property of the future fine art photographer Bill Carlson.

A band as famous as the Beatles or the Beach Boys, or artists as well known as Bob Dylan and Louis Armstrong, will generate a huge archive of photographic images. However, the vintage prints offered by F-Stop Productions are not only fine art prints; they are rare snapshots capturing a moment in time before the artistry was eclipsed by the fame.

Take time now to browse through our collection of vintage fine art photographic prints – available only through F-Stop Productions.