William Carter (American, b. 1934)

Los Angeles-born William Carter graduated from Stanford University in 1957. He became a professional photographer, writer and editor while concurrently pursuing photography. In New York, Carter worked as a book editor for Harper & Row, 1961-63. Based in Beirut 1964-66, he published in LIFE, the London Sunday Times, Geographical Magazine and others. In 1966-69 he freelanced from London, doing assignments for such clients as The New York Times, Women’s Wear Daily, and TWA’s Annual Report. Returning to San Francisco in 1969, William Carter turned to longer term projects. He published his first book of text and pictures, Ghost Towns of the West, in 1971. His second book, Middle West Country, appeared in 1975. Carter’s permanent love affair with New Orleans jazz led him to create his third book Preservation Hall in 1991. He began exhibiting in galleries and published Illuminations, a book of nudes, in 1996.  Carter’s fifth book, Causes and Spirits, is an autobiographical photo-appreciation of humanity worldwide, published in 2011. William Carter’s photographs have been widely exhibited in the U.S. and Europe. More than 150 of his black and white prints are in the permanent collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. In 2012 additional photographs from his Causes and Spirits were acquired by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, others by the Folkwang Museum in Essen, Germany, and still others by the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.