Wayne Miller (American, 1918 - ) was born in Chicago and attended the University of Illinois, Urbana (1938-40) where he studied banking and worked part-time as a freelance photographer. From 1940-42 he studied photography at the Art Center School of Los Angeles and went on to serve in the US Navy where he was assigned to Edward Steichen's Naval Aviation Unit (Miller would later assist Steichen in putting on the record-breaking "Family of Man" exhibition at MoMA in 1954). After the war, Miller won two consecutive Guggenheim Fellowships (1946-48) and photographed a body of work entitled "The Way of Life of the Northern Negro," which was later published as Chicago's South Side (UC Berkely, 2000). Miller briefly taught at Chicago's Institute of Design before moving to California where he worked for Life magazine until 1953. He became a member of Magnum Photos in 1958, serving as its president from 1962-66.  He later went to work with the National Park Service and in 1975 abandoned professional photography in order to dedicate himself to the defense of California forests.