Wayne F. Miller

Wayne F. Miller (September 19, 1918 – May 22, 2013) was an American photographer known for his series of photographs, The Way of Life of the Northern Negro. He had been a contributor to Magnum Photos since 1958.

He was born in Chicago in 1918. Miller studied banking at the University of Illinois at Urbana, working on the side as a photographer. From 1941 to 1942 he studied at the Art Center School of Los Angeles. He then served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy where he was assigned to Edward Steichen's World War II U.S. Navy Combat Photo Unit. He was among the first photographers to document the destruction at Hiroshima.

After the war he resettled in Chicago. He won two consecutive Guggenheim fellowships in 1946-1948, with which he worked on The Way of Life of the Northern Negro. These images were published in his book Chicago's South Side, 1946-1948. This project documented the wartime migration of African Americans northward, specifically looking at the black community on the south side of Chicago, covering all the emotions in daily life. The people depicted are mostly ordinary people, but some celebrities appear, such as Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and Paul Robeson.

Miller taught at the Institute of Design in Chicago before moving to Orinda, California working for Life in 1953. He also worked with Edward Steichen as an associate curator for The Family of Man exhibition and book at New York's Museum of Modern Art. He has been a contract photographer for Life and served as president of Magnum Photos from 1962-1966. Miller has been a longtime member of the American Society of Magazine Photographers and was named chairman in 1954. In 1970 he joined the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as executive director of the Public Broadcasting Environmental Center, and since his retirement from photography in 1975 has continued to work to protect California's forests.

In addition to his career as a photographer, Miller provided the photographs for A Baby's First Year with Benjamin Spock and John B. Reinhart, and wrote The World is Young. Miller died on May 22, 2013 at the age of 94.

Bibliography 

• A Baby's First Year. New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1956. With text by Benjamin Spock and John B. Reinhart.
• The World is Young. New York: Ridge Press, 1958.
• Chicago's South Side: 1946–1948. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-520-22316-5.
• Light, Ken. "Wayne Miller: World War II and the family of man". In Ken Light, Witness in Our Time: Working Lives of Documentary Photographers.Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000. ISBN 1-56098-923-8; ISBN 1-56098-948-3.
• At Ease: Navy Men of World War II. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2004. ISBN 978-0-8109-4805-1. By Evan Bachner. With work by Miller, Horace Bristol,Victor Jorgensen, and Barrett Gallagher.
• Chicago Photographs: LaSalle Bank Photography Collection. Chicago, Ill.: LaSalle Bank, 2004. ISBN 0-9702452-3-8. By Carol Ehlers. Includes work by Miller.
• Wayne F. Miller: Photographs 1942-1958. Brooklyn, NY: Powerhouse Books, 2008. ISBN 978-1-57687-462-2.

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American, b. 1918

Born in Chicago, Wayne Miller studied banking at the University of Illinois, Urbana, while working part-time as a photographer. He went on to study photography at the Art Center School of Los Angeles from 1941 to 1942.

Miller served in the United States Navy, where he was assigned to Edward Steichen's Naval Aviation Unit. After the war he settled in Chicago and worked as a freelancer. In 1946-48, he won two consecutive Guggenheim Fellowships and photographed African-Americans in the northern states.

Miller taught photography at the Institute of Design in Chicago, then in 1949 moved to Orinda, California, and worked for Life until 1953. For the next two years he was Edward Steichen's assistant on the Museum of Modern Art's historic exhibit, The Family of Man. A long-time member of the American Society of Magazine Photographers, he was named its chairman in the summer of 1954. He became a member of Magnum Photos in 1958, and served as its president from 1962 to 1966. His ambition throughout this period was, in his words, to 'photograph mankind and explain man to man'.

Having been active in environmental causes since the 1960s, Miller then went to work with the National Park Service. He joined the Corporation of Public Broadcasting as executive director of the Public Broadcasting Environmental Center in 1970. After he retired from professional photography in 1975 he devoted himself to protection of California's forests. Along the way, Miller co-authored A Baby's First Year with Dr Benjamin Spock, and wrote his own book, The World is Young. He lives in California.

Education

1941/42  Photography, The Art Center School of Los Angeles, USA 1938/40  Banking, University Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA

Awards

1946/48  Guggenheim Fellowships

Books

2000       Chicago’s South Side 1946-48 (with Gordon Parks, Orville Schell,                  and Robert B. Stepto), University of California Press, USA 1958       The World Is Young, Ridge Press, USA 1956       A Baby's First Year (with Benjamin Spock and John Reinhart),                 Duell, Sloan and Pearce; USA

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