Yearly Archives: 2012

ESPN Mag: Last Time They Met

Posted on November 29 2012 by Greg Miller

Brian Downing at his home in Smiths Station, Alabama.

In late September, ESPN Photo Editor, Jim Surber asked me to photograph the two men caught up in the now infamous video that shows Brian Downing “teabagging” Garrison Stamp who passed out at a Bourbon Street Krystals in New Orleans after last year’s trouncing of LSU by Alabama. This story, written by Mark Winegardner, part of ESPN’s, One Day, One Game issue, examines what happened that day and the fallout for Downing and Stamp as well as their families in the aftermath of the viral video.

One Day, One Game, November 26, 2012 Issue of ESPN.

To be honest, until I got this assignment, I had not seen the video or even heard about it. I am not a huge fan of football or of viral videos for that matter. I watched about a minute of it and didn’t need to see any more. It is painful to watch. Painful, as many people have said, because no one, not even Downing’s friends, stopped to help Stamp (or Downing). And painful, especially once you meet them both, to see how two people’s lives can be irrevocably changed in today’s world, not because of football and not because of alcohol (although partly), but because of the internet.

In the story, Winegardner describes the moment when Downing and his wife are headed to Target and the video goes viral:

On the way, as they cross the Chattahoochee River, Brian’s cell rings. It’s his sister’s husband.

“Um … dude?” the brother-in-law says. “Did you know you’re on the Internet?”

Brian frowns. “Huh?”

“From New Orleans. I think you’re on the Internet.”

Just then, Andrea’s cell goes off. It’s her best friend from high school, who’s heard from a mutual friend that he’d seen someone who might be Brian on a football website. Andrea looks over at her husband.

“Do you know what for?” the brother-in-law asks Brian. Brian’s phone vibrates with a text message, then another from someone else. “I think I have an idea,” Brian says.

The best friend doesn’t want to tell Andrea exactly what the person who might be Brian does on that video, but she communicates the gist of it. She says she’ll send a link. Andrea’s thinking, It can’t be. That’s not Brian. Another call comes up on her phone, then a text message. Brian hangs up. He has calls coming in too and a fusillade of texts. Neither one answers.

Brian pulls his Escape to the side of the road. Andrea is shaking. She asks him what’s going on.

It is a bit of a challenge, photographically, to photograph both perpetrator and victim without casting that judgement on the subjects. I wanted, above all, to simply document them so that the reader could see them, as two human beings first.

Not to belittle the very real crime that took place, but I see them both as victims. Victims of today’s harsh online social environment. Unfortunately, no one stepped in to save either one of them from that.

Brian Downing at his home in Smiths Station, Alabama.

Garrison Stamp at his Mother’s home in Missouri City, TX.

Brian Downing at his home in Smiths Station, Alabama.

Garrison Stamp at his Mother’s home in Missouri City, TX.

I would like to thank Jim Surber and the whole gang up at ESPN Magazine for trusting me with a great story.

Quoted text by Mark Winegardner.

All images unless otherwise noted, copyright Greg Miller.

By The People

Posted on November 27 2012 by Greg Miller

First-time voter, D’Andre Stevenson, Cuyahoga County Precinct 4 at Mount Olive Baptist Church. D’Andre’s hands were shaking as he voted. After he cast his ballot he said, “I voted for Obama. It felt good because I could vote for who I really wanted. My vote counted.”

This year I decided to head to the great city of Cleveland, Ohio to continue my Election Day project. I have been photographing polling places and voters since 2004, the year Bush defeated Kerry. That year, Esquire magazine hired me to photograph polling places and voters for a possible feature on the election. Unfortunately, the story was killed right after the elections since, it seems, there is little interest in an election after it’s over. I loved the pictures and I was forever changed by the experience of meeting and talking to the pollworkers whom, I had never really spoken to, I must confess, other than to give them my name and address. I have photographed in most of the elections since in New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and now Ohio.

It hit me the first time I photographed polling stations that this is what an American democracy looks like: a clerical exercise of shuffling papers and bean counting–not overturned cars in the street or mobs throwing Molotov cocktails. The tallying of 121,745,725 votes cast in the days after Nov 6, 2012, comes down to the service of ordinary citizens who take an oath not to interfere with the process and are paid less than $200 for the day.

Meanwhile, from the voter’s perspective, regardless of what we think about our options for who we can elect or whether we believe any great change took place, we have either retained or overthrown our government by casting one vote. The evolution of our voting laws has been a long 200 year process to finally include everyone (except convicted felons and minors). My pictures are a window into what that process looks like up close.

Pollworker, Howard Greenberg, Cuyahoga County, Bay Village Precinct at Bay High School. Howard was a paratrooper in the Philippines in World War II. “I participated in the 60th Anniversary of the Normandy Invasion on D-Day in 2004. I was 79 years old then.” He and his wife of 64 years, Selma, have been pollworkers for 10 years.

Stephen Murray, Cuyahoga County, Hunting Valley Precinct at Hunting Valley Hall. “I voted for Barack Obama. It felt like it mattered more than in previous years. It felt like there was more at stake.”

Pollworker, Rashida Jones, Cuyahoga County, Cleveland Heights Precinct at the Judson Retirement Community.

Voters at Cuyahoga County, Bay Village Precinct at Bay High School.

Pollworker John Szenger (right) with other workers, Cuyahoga County, Precinct 13 at the American Legion Post 469.

Voter, Rachel Pop with her daughter, Arianna. Cuyahoga County, Precinct 13 at American Legion Post 469.

Voters at Cuyahoga County, Bay Village Precinct at Bay High School.

Photographing Howard Greenberg at Bay High School. Photograph by Sophie Schwartz.

Election day is always a long day but this one seemed to fly by because I was in the very capable hands of Cleveland photographer Rose Marincil and Laurel High School student Sophie Schwartz, a talented photographer in her own right. I would also like to thank Mark Schwartz and Tina Katz and their daughters Emma and Sophie, for very graciously hosting me in Cleveland and Mark, who helped me plan a winding path through Cuyahoga County. And lastly, I would like to thank the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, the beautiful Clevelanders who graciously allowed me to take their picture and the nearly 122 million Americans who voted.

Unless otherwise noted, all images copyright Greg Miller.

Approaching People

Posted on November 19 2012 by Greg Miller

Eritrea, 2004, from Winterground. Photograph by Thatcher Cook.

National Date Festival, 2005. Photograph by Greg Miller.

Greg Miller and Thatcher Cook. Photographs by Manjari Sharma (left) and Joshua Smith (right)

I am joining forces with the talented documentary photographer, Thatcher Cook, to create a very special workshop experience coming up in San Francisco in December devoted solely to approaching and photographing people. Thatcher and I met this Summer at Maine Media Workshops and decided to do a workshop on the topic that comes up most: how to approach people and make the picture you want to make. Two photographers coming from completely different approaches, Thatcher with his Leica, me with my 8×10 camera, both of us committed to photographing human beings in their environments.

In this workshop, seasoned documentary photographers, Thatcher Cook and Greg Miller, team up to teach their secrets to approaching people.

This workshop will go over time-tested methods for identifying and moving beyond the fear of  approaching strangers, enabling students to make the pictures they are really seeing.

This two-weekend workshop will kick off with a casual dinner the evening of Dec 7 and run through the weekend of Dec 8-9, concluding with an intensive edit and crit over the weekend of Dec 15-16.

Details:

When: Two weekends, December 8-9 and 15-16, 2012 (casual dinner Dec. 7)

Where: San Francisco and Berkeley, California

Tuition: $595 (Lunch will be provided)

Contact me, studio@gregmiller.com or Thatcher, thatcher@thatchercook.com, to enroll or if you have questions.

The Large Format Narrative Portrait

Posted on May 29 2012 by Greg Miller

Las Vegas, 2001.

Have you ever wanted to try out shooting large format but didn’t have the equipment or nerve? Are you terrified of talking to strangers? Maybe you already have experience in large format but would like to push yourself to do more. My large format photography workshop in the beautiful setting of Rockport, Maine is coming up July 8 through July 14. It is an opportunity to challenge yourself within a supportive and encouraging environment with likeminded artistic individuals.

The weeklong workshop is geared toward getting you up to speed with a 4×5 camera while looking and discussing the pictures you make during the week often referencing images that you have taken before the class.  As the week progresses, we turn the camera to photographing people, often strangers, on the fly, in sometimes unexpected environments such as grocery store parking lots, local neighborhoods or the beach to name a few. Beyond that, we will be looking at creating narratives and stories within the frame as well as within bodies of work.

Greg helped me find my voice by encouraging me to use a larger format, but more importantly through his profoundly sharp, insightful, and constructive critiques.  He helped me slow down and develop my emerging style, skills I keep building on years after taking his class.

-Christi Paige, Photographer

Photographers at any level, from students who have never touched large format cameras, to experienced large format shooters are encouraged to register. Shooting large format photography in the world challenges and inspires every level. This course discusses not only the basics of camera operation, camera movements and anything needed to get up and running, but also addresses the challenges of photographing people in the world, such as approaching strangers, obtaining release forms, and addressing the fears and boundaries associated with this type of portraiture.

Equipment (4×5 cameras and tripods) as well as film processing and printing is included in the tuition.

If you have any questions about the course please comment below or email me at studio@gregmiller.com.

Click image for more information or to enroll with Maine Media Workshops

Below is a video made by a local Nashville TV station in 2008 showing me shooting on the street.

You can always find up to date workshop information on my new workshop page.

Good Morning, Joplin.

Posted on May 22 2012 by Greg Miller

An oak tree grows near St. Mary's Church, Joplin, MO.

Today is the one year anniversary of the powerful tornado that devastated a large swath of Joplin, MO. I was in Joplin for a job last week. I stopped and took a few photographs on my way back to the airport. I was surprised by how much some areas still, after a year, looked in shambles, while some buildings that were completely destroyed, like big box stores, looked as if they were, well, brand new.

While driving around, at first I thought to focus on things that had been destroyed, but it took maybe 5 minutes to occur to me that that picture had been made many times in the last year. Instead I began looking for evidence of renewal. It also happened to be an absolutely gorgeous day. I met Marti Goebel taking her two daughters to the school bus stop. Marti, who had been renting before the tornando, told me that if it hadn’t been for the tornado she wouldn’t have been able to buy a home.  Habitat for Humanity helped her build her home in the devastated area. Her home and the one across the street, sit surrounded by empty foundations as far as the eye can see. Spending just two days there, meeting the few people that I met, I understood that life was harder. I knew so many people had lost their homes and for some, much more.  But as the anniversary of the tornado approached, they weren’t letting on. I thought these people are determined to rebuild.

Thank you to TIME for running the top image in this week’s magazine as well as a gallery on Lightbox.

Marti Goebel standing outside her new home, Joplin, MO.

Grace and Emma Goebel waiting for the school bus, Joplin, MO.

Tony Housley repairing fallen gravestones, Joplin, MO.

Joplin sunrise on the back of the ground glass.

 

New and Improved!

Posted on May 22 2012 by Greg Miller

I am very excited (and exhausted) to bring you the relaunch of my website. Please take a look around and tell your friends. It has been a long haul but I am very proud of it. I am also very happy to feel updated in this world for even a few minutes.

In addition to the revamped About and Press pages, I am very excited to have added a Workshops page where people can go to see my upcoming workshops and talks.

Please use it as a resource and be sure to drop me a line at the studio and let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you!

I would like to especially thank Michael Braley at BraleyDesign for designing my letterhead. (I’ll explain why my name is upside down in another post.)  Also Thomas James Hole for building the site. If you need to update your website, and you know who you are, I highly recommend Tom.

 

Coming Soon: The New gregmiller.com!

Posted on May 18 2012 by Greg Miller

Coming next week, the new and improved gregmiller.com. I am making the finishing touches on my new website. It will have bigger and brighter images, better navigation and much more!

Best Friends at Gallery 339

Posted on May 11 2012 by Greg Miller

Modena, Italy. 2012 Photograph by Andrea Modica.

Opening tonight is Best Friends, platinum prints of high school kids and their best friends by Andrea Modica at Gallery 339 in Philadelphia. At a time when the word “friend” becomes more virtual and less anything real, Modica’s images are a gorgeous and fascinating exploration into who we chose to be our real–flesh and blood–best friend.

Gallery 339
339 South 21st Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
215.731.1530

Opening tonight 6-8pm

HOURS:
Tuesday- Saturday, 10:00 am-6:00 pm

Dumpster Pinholes

Posted on May 3 2012 by Greg Miller

Dom Hamburg

I love these.  Photograph by garbageman Bernd Leguttky, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann. Trashcam Project via Good

Occupy Spring

Posted on May 1 2012 by Greg Miller

Geodesic Dome, Occupy Hartford, 2011.

 

“Never before in all history have the inequities and the momentums of unthinking money-power been more glaringly evident to so vastly large a number of now literate, competent, and constructively thinking all-around-the-world humans. There’s a soon-to-occur critical-mass moment when the intuition of the responsibly inspired majority of humanity, in contradistinction to the angered Luddites and avenging Robin Hoods, faced with comprehensive functional discontinuity of nationally contained techno-economic system, will call for and accomplish a world-around reorientation of our planetary affairs.”

Buckminster Fuller in 1983, from The Grunch of Giants.

 

 

Today is May Day, International Worker’s Day.  The Occupy Movement has called for a day of action and general strike worldwide today. Last December, Fast Company magazine asked me to photograph eight innovators from the Occupy Movement for their 2012 Innovators issue. The magazine’s editors included the Occupy Movement in the annual list that includes the likes of Apple, Facebook and Google,  ”for embodying all the traits that make a fast company.”

Before starting the story for FC, I went over to meet some of the people at the Occupy Hartford encampment near me.  The city removed them just 2 days later.

The Movement has seen it’s donations dwindle of late. It remains to be seen if the movement can regain the momentum it had in the last year.

Amanda and Talon, Occupy Hartford, 2011.

Luke, Occupy Hartford, 2011.

Below, the March issue of Fast Company magazine.

Fast Company, March 2012.

Jan Wampler, MIT, Cambridge, MA.

Jan Wampler, MIT. The MIT architecture professor, along with student and alumni volunteers and Occupiers themselves, has helped design housing structures that can keep protesters warm in the winter.

Benjamin Phillips, Occupy Oakland, in front of the Port of Oakland.

Benjamin Phillips, Occupy Oakland. An Air Force veteran of the Iraq war, Phillips leverages his marketing and social-media expertise to facilitate accessible technology for all members of Occupy Oakland.

Emily Jacobi, Digital Democracy, New York.

Emily Jacobi, Digital Democracy. With the OccupyVotes platform, Jacobi and her peers at Digital Democracy have created a platform that reveals the priorities of a movement that notoriously won’t list its demands.

Andy Dao and Ivan Cash, Occupy George, San Francisco.

Andy Dao and Ivan Cash, Occupy George. By stamping Occupy-related facts and figures on dollar bills, they show solidarity with the movement and annoy banks at the same time.

Malik Rahsaan, Occupy The Hood, Queens, NY.

Malik Rahsaan, Occupy the Hood. Rahsaan started Occupy the Hood to get people of color actively involved in the Occupy movement, bringing community-level issues to a national stage.

Isaac Wilder, Free Network Foundation.

Isaac Wilder, Free Network Foundation. The Free Network Foundation helps make the Internet and communication tools used by Occupy movements more efficient and accessible among their users, not controlled by a centralized power.

Shen Tong, Occupy Wall Street, in front of the NYSE.

Shen Tong, Occupy Wall Street. A longtime veteran of social movements dating back to China’s Tianamen Sq., Tong helps influence OWS from a philosophical view.

Joan Donovan, Interoccupy, in Zuccotti Park.

Joan Donovan, Interoccupy. Donovan works on interoccupation communications, linking various local Occupy movements and connecting individual groups with celebrities, such as Sean Penn.

Photographing Jan Wampler in front of MIT. Photograph by Tina Chiappetta-Miller.

I would like to thank Fast Company’s creative team for thinking of me for this great assignment: Creative Director, Florian Bachleda, Director of Photography, Leslie Dela Vega, Photo Editor, Kathy Nguyen and Art Director Ted Keller.