“As a photographer my subject has always been the family of man. My concerns have been with you and me, our struggles with ourselves and each other.”
-Wayne F. Miller
Early years
Born in Chicago in 1918, Wayne Miller studied banking at the University of Illinois, Urbana, while working part-time as a campus photographer. He went on to study photography at the Art Center School of Los Angeles from 1941 to 1942.
War Years
Miller joined the Navy in late 1941. He married Joan Baker in June and they moved to Washington D. C. where Miller was assigned to the Bureau of Aeronautics and told to organize papers in the classified materials vault. He heard of a new navy unit being formed, to be headed by Edward Steichen. Miller’s commanding officer arranged an appointment for him to meet Steichen in New York City. The story goes that Steichen appreciated Miller’s youthful energy and assigned him to his new unit as the first recruit. The unit came to have six photographers, all were given orders to make images as they wished. Miller was mostly in the Pacific, on aircraft carriers. He photographed the Naval Supply Depot on Guam, and street children in Naples. He was in Hiroshima right after the bomb, and later made images of F.D.R.’s funeral cortege. The navy work is the property of the U.S. government, and is located in the National Archives.
1945-1949
After the war he settled in Chicago, his home, and photographed the African Americans nearby in the South Side of Chicago. His work was financed by some free-lance work for Ebony Magazine and others, and by two Guggenheim Fellowships. He also photographed the contestants for the Morris B. Sachs Amateur Talent Show each week. Miller had three children by this time and photographed the development of his newborn second daughter for monthly installments in the Ladies’ Home Journal.
Miller taught photography at the Institute of Design in Chicago for a short time, then in 1949 moved to Orinda, California, and worked for LIFE under contract until 1953. Miller was in touch with Magnum Photos in this period, the agency sent him West Coast jobs on occasion. The agency asked him to become a member but he said he was not ready to commit yet. The book, Baby’s First Year, showing his second daughter’s first year of life was published in 1953.
Family of Man Exhibit
From 1953-1955 he was Edward Steichen’s assistant developing the historic exhibit, The Family of Man, at Museum of Modern Art in New York. Steichen and Miller had become close allies since their war work, working well together. They shared the idea of a better world with less conflict. Miller always said that Steichen was really a showman, who created the idea of the exhibit and kept the spirt alive during the exhibit development.
After the Family of Man
Returning to California, he spent 1955-1958 making images of children, publishing the World Is Young book in 1958. 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. Miller retired from photography in the early 1970’s. Miller revisited his work in the late 1990’s. A photojournalist friend came by, checked out the print room and made it clear to Miller there was a lot of material there that had not been published and was wonderful. That was the beginning of Miller’s efforts to bring the Chicago southside images to print. A few years later the book Chicago’s South Side 1946-1948 was published, Wayne was 82. Miller established a relationship with the Stephen Daiter Gallery in Chicago at that time. Daiter worked with Miller to publish in 2008 a monograph, Wayne F. Miller Photographs 1942-1958.
Friendship with Steichen
In addition to the working relationship between Wayne Miller and Edward Steichen, the Miller and Steichen families spent much time together. While working on the Family of Man, the Millers would spend summers and weekends at the Steichen home in Connecticut. After the death of Dana Steichen in 1957, Edward would visit the Miller family for extended periods of time. There were many road trips, often in search of the perfect Northern California property in which Wayne and his wife Joan could raise timber. Steichen and Joan shared a passion for gardening. The families remained very close until Steichen’s death in 1973.
Retired from photography
Miller immersed himself in the politics of redwood timber land in California. He was a founder of Forest Landowners of California, lobbied for changes in timber taxation policy, served as Director of California Hardwood Association, was a moderator in the Mendocino timber conflicts. His was the voice of intelligent management and sustainability. His timberland, on the Ten Mile River, has been managed for sustainability longer than any other California timber property.
Miller died in 2013, he was 93 years old.
Collections and Archives
Wayne F. Miller’s work can be licensed through Magnum Photos. Magnum is also a source for modern prints.
Vintage prints are available from the Stephen Daiter Gallery in Chicago and the Wayne F. Miller estate. The estate has a large collection of Wayne Miller’s navy work.
The Center for Creative Photography at the University of Arizona in Tucson holds Miller’s archives-black and white negatives, contact sheets, correspondence, book dummies, and both fine and working prints.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. has book dummies for Chicago South Side, and many fine prints made in Chicago in 1946-1948.
Miller’s Navy negatives are held in The National Archives at College Park.