The Magnum Square Print Sale
The Magnum Square Print Sale is a bi-annual, week-long sale of 6x6" prints signed by Magnum photographers and estates. Over 70 photographs are selected from the Magnum archive for each sale. Outside of the week-long sale window, they will never be made available in this format again.
Since its beginning in 2014, The Square Print Sale has featured over 1,600 images around 24 themes, and has partnered with artistic institutions including Aperture, The Photographer’s Gallery, and Granta, to offer programming related to the current theme. Below are the Wayne F. Miller Estate’s contributions to the Magnum Square Print Sale over its ten-year history.
Spectacle [Spring, 2025]. US President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s official visit. Ankara, Turkey. December 1959.
Wayne Miller’s images from the Eisenhower’s 1959 eleven nation tour were published in LIFE, TIME, and Sports Illustrated. It was a 11-country trip, with film mishaps along the way. Miller shared in his notes “...200mm lens wobbled…lost 21mm viewfinder…camera wet and had to be taken apart...open film cases…developing film on the press plane…”.
-Wayne F. Miller Estate
Eden [Fall, 2024] Jeanette's hands. Arlington, VA. 1945.
Wayne Miller photographed his firstborn, ‘reaching for the future.’ Children were the most important element in Miller’s life. His interest in children led to the books, A Baby’s First Year, in 1953, co-authored with Dr. Benjamin Spock, and The World is Young in 1958. Miller’s optimistic view of life led him to work with Edward Steichen in developing The Family of Man exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in 1955. Even though that period in American life was overshadowed by Cold War fears, the exhibit was enormously successful, some said because the exhibit glowed with positivity for what comes next.
After photography, Miller turned to forests and redwood trees. He always said it was about the future with trees; he would plant a tree knowing it would grow large enough for his children to sustainably harvest in 80 years.
-Wayne F. Miller Estate
Fable [Spring, 2024]. Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. New York City. 1948.
Fables are foundational stories about human nature. Illustrating timeless truths about virtue and vice, they turn on the moral dilemmas that people face and teach universal lessons that are accessible and memorable through a combination of words and images. Expanding on this theme is a selection of photographs that chronicled the enduring relationship between humans and animals.
-Magnum Photos
Written by Light [Fall, 2023]. Tear. Dana Miller. March, 1950.
The Dana’s tear photograph has the luminous even light found in many of Wayne Miller’s images. He most often used natural light, positioning his subject for best advantage. Dana was relaxed, accustomed to her father’s movements, and allowed herself to be unhappy.
-Wayne F. Miller Estate
Vital Signs [Spring, 2023]. Teens dancing. Orinda, California. 1950.
At the Pine Grove school in Orinda, there were periodic dances for the 12-14 year old kids. They got dressed up and went to the gymnasium which had chairs lining the walls with crepe paper criss-crossing above. Then a boy came to ask a girl to dance, and the dancing was so fun. This was the time of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Gene Vincent with Be-Bop-A-Lula.
This image is in the World is Young project Wayne Miller embarked on in 1955-1958. He was convinced children’s lives had not been explored photographically. He followed his children and their classmates over three years photographing classes, school yards, dances, fights, friendship and everything else he could find.
-Wayne F. Miller Estate
Now [Fall, 2022]. Eddie Nichols Gymnasium. Chicago, Illinois. 1947.
This was at the Eddie Nichols Gymnasium at 50th and State in Chicago, a popular gym for young boxers. Joe Louis worked out there. This image appears in the photo book of Wayne’s, Chicago’s South Side 1946-1948, documenting the Great Migration of African Americans from the South.
-Wayne F. Miller Estate
Precedent [Spring, 2022]. Center of atomic bomb blast. Hiroshima, Japan. September 8, 1945.
The image of the single soldier was made in the center of Hiroshima, the location of a former parade ground near a destroyed military barracks. Wayne was in the Navy in 1945. He landed in Tokyo seeing devastation from the Allied bombing in the downtown area and seeing people moving around selling items, getting haircuts in the street amid rubble. Next stop was Hiroshima. The center of the city was flattened, medical stations were around tending to victims of the blast. There were Shinto temple services honoring the dead, ashes in boxes. His notes say “there was nothing, nothing, nothing, and more of the same.” He spent one day there then moved on to Yokohama.
-Wayne F. Miller Estate
On the Horizon [October, 2021]. Afternoon game at table 2. Chicago, Illinois. 1948.
The story goes that Wayne stood on the pool table in order to fix his lights, one at each end of the room. The crowd was helpful, steadying Wayne as he went up and down from the table.
-Wayne F. Miller Estate
Way for Escape [July, 2021]. Joan Miller at Edward Steichen's home, "Umpawaug". Redding, Connecticut. 1942.
Events were moving quickly. Wayne Miller and new wife Joan had married and were on their honeymoon at Edward Steichen’s home in Connecticut when this photo was taken June of 1942. Wayne had just been attached to Steichen’s photography unit in the Navy: the unit eventually included Charles Kerlee, Victor Jorgensen, Horace Bristol, Dwight Long, Fenno Jacobs, and Alfonso Iannelli. This image was a quiet time before Wayne went on a four-year journey of making photographs of the war in the Pacific, in Japan and in Italy.
-Wayne F. Miller Estate
The Unexpected [March, 2021]. American singer Ella Fitzgerald performing. Chicago, Illinois. 1948.
Celebrating the unpredictability of life, the theme The Unexpected explores the happy accidents and unusual turns of events that lead to memorable images.
-Magnum Photos
Works of Imagination [October, 2020]. A girl "reading" Ebony magazine. Chicago, Illinois. 1947.
In partnership with Aperture, this theme imagines the world in pictures, and documents it in ways that spur and inspire freewheeling thought. Documentary photographers - whether capturing the aftermath of conflict, famous figures, religious observances, social realities, or indeed making visible the unreal - take a fraction of time and suspend it, allowing the image to be interpreted in myriad ways by viewers.
Artists inspire us to imagine the future. Their commitment to shape it in a better way, is reflected in their works.
-Magnum Photos
Solidarity [July, 2020]. Father and son at Lake Michigan. Chicago, Illinois. 1947.
Expressing oneness was a central tenant of Wayne’s life and professional practice. He showed that here on the shore of Lake Michigan in 1947. And it was the core value of the Family of Man exhibition which he assisted in developing, shown at Museum of Modern Art in 1955. The spirit of the exhibit was expressed by Carl Sandburg in exhibit texts.
— Wayne F. Miller Estate
Turning Points [April, 2020]. A woman and her squatter's shack on a cold winter day. Chicago, Illinois. 1948.
Wayne Miller making images of African Americans in Chicago in 1948 was not a turning point but a continuation of his earlier work. Wayne had photographed African American men enlisted in the Navy who were assigned to cooking, cleaning and supply depot duties on board the USS Saratoga and on Guam during WWII—and he was drawn to this community on land right after the war. The caption he made about this image was: A woman and her squatter’s shack on a cold winter day, 1948. It was built of cardboard and plywood on Lake Michigan’s beach. He said “That‘s life itself, to be able to see it and then to share it.“
— Wayne F. Miller Estate
Hidden [Fall, 2019]. Two young men playing pool. 1962
Part of a story my father did for the Saturday Evening Post called “We Waste A Million Kids A Year”, these young men, absorbed in their game, show us their silhouettes but not themselves.
— Wayne F. Miller Estate
Obsessions [Spring, 2019]. Joan Miller. Orinda, California. 1955.
Wayne was not obsessed with photographing Joan, his wife, but was compelled. His eyes followed her with his camera throughout their 70-year marriage. She once said, “Wayne never did think he did a good job of shooting me.” She was his photographic testing ground and source of inspiration.
— Wayne F. Miller Estate
Crossings [Fall, 2019]. A drive-in theater between Flora and the village of Louisville. Illinois, USA. 1960.
Wayne's camera appears to be inexhaustible as it goes from life to life–abruptly leaving one door to arrive at another."
-Gordon Parks on Wayne Miller, Chicago's South Side 1946 -1948 (2000)
Freedom [Spring, 2018]. The Price of Freedom: USS Saratoga. South Pacific. November 1943.
This photograph was taken on the USS Saratoga, the morning of the November 1943 attack on the island of Rabaul. Wayne was ready to board one of the planes when a fellow photographer pleaded with him to take his place, so he stayed behind. That photographer, Paul T. Barnett, did not make it back. Despite the casualties, it was considered a successful raid.
-Wayne F. Miller Estate
Great Journeys [Fall, 2017]. California, USA. 1950.
The theme, “Great Journeys”, honours Magnum co-founder George Rodger, whose experiences photographing the horrors of World War II would lead him to travel the world in search of “hope and humanity”. Now, seven decades later, a selection of both Magnum and Aperture lensmen and women have been chosen to help celebrate his spirit and legacy by offering a range of important and inspiring human experiences captured both home and away.
-Magnum Photos
Closer [Spring, 2017]. Strike captain during a protest of packing house workers. Chicago, Illinois. March, 1948
“Somehow or other, people accepted me, they didn’t feel I was trying to take advantage of them…I was serious about trying to take some photographs, and I wasn’t going to hurt them. I’d like to think that they felt that I could, maybe, tell their story and express the things that were of concern to them. I didn’t ask them to stand there, or put their arm there. I never interfered a bit as to what they were doing. My opening statement would usually be, ‘Please keep doing what you’re doing, it’s lovely,’ or something of that nature. Strangely enough, people would do it.”
-Wayne Miller, from An Eye On the World: oral history interview. Regional Oral History Office, University of California, Berkeley. 2003
[Fall, 2016]. David in Robot Costume. Orinda, California. 1956.
My brother David was always building things. Here he is off to the school bus wearing his latest creation, a robot made of cardboard, silver paint and tubing. Once inside the costume it took considerable family effort to attach working arms. He would be showing off his costume that day at the school Halloween parade. It was quite normal for dad to follow David on to school with a camera around his neck. He shadowed his four children for three years as part of the photo project that became his 1958 book, The World is Young. Dad thought the life of children was quite different from the life of adults—he hoped to share what that looked like through photographs.
-Wayne F. Miller Estate
[Fall, 2016]. Children in a movie theater. 1958.
‘The Laughing Children’ was shot in Orinda, California, just before Christmas in 1958. The local movie theater had a holiday party tradition. Santa Claus was the party host and gave each child a present as the child filed by the very tall decorated Christmas tree in the lobby. The tree was heavily covered in twinkly tinsel. There was holiday music going on to accompany the ho-ho-ho’s from Santa and the kids chattering. Because it was December, it was usually raining in the street so the kids were often a bit damp and chilly as they entered the theater. The show was cartoons and more cartoons. I was a bit old by then, around 12, but those shows were magnificent.
-Wayne F. Miller Estate
[Fall, 2015]. Tuesday Afternoon on South Halsted Street. Chicago, Illinois. 1947.
“When I spotted an interesting scene or situation, I didn’t try to hide myself or my camera. Instead, I often approached the people involved. ‘Please,’ I said, ‘pay no attention to me. Just keep doing what you’re already doing.’ Believe it or not, they usually did. Once I even photographed a veteran prostitute on the job with one of her regulars. They didn’t mind. Afterward, when asked if I had gotten the pictures, I said that it had happened a bit fast; he then invited me to come back next Tuesday, when he would arrange for me to have all the time I needed.”
-Excerpt from: Wayne F. Miller, in Chicago’s South Side, 1946-1948