Join us for an artist's reception and book signing with Wayne F. Miller on Friday, November 21 from 5 to 8 PM
Stephen Daiter Gallery is honored to present the first major gallery overview of the early photography of Chicago–born photographer, Wayne F. Miller. Wayne, (born 1918) began his career in the U. S. Navy during the Second World War. He documented Franklin D. Roosevelt's funeral and recorded the destruction of Hiroshima – a few short weeks after the first atomic bomb was dropped. In response to the horrors he witnessed and wanting to continue his profession in ways that better celebrated the human condition – he returned to his native Chicago, and with a pair of coveted Guggenheim grants, Wayne began an historic series of photographs (1946-1948) of the bustling Bronzeville community. During that time he also worked for Ebony Magazine and taught at the now famous Institute of Design, at the behest of his good friend, Harry Callahan.
Soon he was off to the Museum of Modern Art, New York, as the principle assistant to the great Edward Steichen on the groundbreaking project known as The Family of Man. It was a revolutionary photographic survey and publication, premiering in 1955 and traveling abroad with an overriding agenda of establishing a positive connection among peoples in a world trying to heal from the wounds of history's greatest conflict. Miller also collaborated with Dr. Benjamin Spock, illustrating the best-selling Baby's First Year5 (1955). He documented his own family for another classic publication, The World Is Young (1958). Miller was elected a member of the famous cooperative agency Magnum in 1958. He worked incessantly as a magazine photojournalist and completed more than 150 assignments of Life Magazine alone.
Wayne Miller witnessed the middle decades of the 20th century as few others have, and he created a monumental body of work in an attempt… "…to explain man to man …to look through the eyes of others…." The Stephen Daiter Gallery will host Miller's work in both galleries, showcasing close to 80 vintage photographs, many rarely before seen. These images put a human face on countless moments in our social history - from the turbulent to the contemplative. Some of them tell us how far we've come and others remind us how far we still need to go.
