Profile

CARROLL SEGHERS II (1924-2004) was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a World War II pilot and flight instructor, he was stationed in Columbus, Mississippi and Sheppard Field in Wichita Falls, Texas, where he was one of the first 19 helicopter pilots in the Army Air Corps (now the U.S. Air Force). After the military, he was a commercial pilot, and a sailor, delivering sailboats from Miami to both Caribbean and Pacific destinations, before beginning a long and highly distinguished career as a photojournalist and commercial illustrative specialist.

As a leading member of the 35mm creative photography revolution in the 60s and 70s, he used the training of his earlier careers to organize the mechanics of photography to bend to the extremes of illustrative image problem-solving requirements. He rose to prominence by winning First Prize for Individual Pictures and an Honorable Mention in the Photo Story category of LIFE magazine’s Photo Contest for Young Professionals in 1951. He later worked for LIFE magazine, based in rapid succession in Paris, Miami, Panama, Hollywood and New York City.

Having studied diving at the Cousteau diving school in Monaco, he was one of the first Americans to experiment with underwater photography. Later, while living for several years in Miami, he specialized in underwater still photography and film. He worked as a cameraman on “20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea,” “Beneath the 12 Mile Reef,” “Creature of the Black Lagoon,” and TV segments of “Flipper” and “Sea Hunt.”

His uniquely candid illustrative photographs have been published worldwide and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and numerous American galleries. In national judging, he won two consecutive “Best of Series” First Place Awards from the Missouri School of Journalism, and numerous creative awards for his illustrative advertising images for such iconic brands as Marlboro, IBM, Ford, Cadillac, United Airlines, Panasonic, Nabisco, Goodyear, American Express, Chrysler, Johnny Walker, General Electric, Coca Cola, Kellogg, Merrill Lynch, Coors Beer, Texaco, and many more.

As a TV commercial director and cameraman, he won two Clio awards and also photographed a one-hour ABC network TV special about a mountain climbing school, produced by Time-Life. His book credits include “Adventures in Williamsburg” and “The Peak Experience.”