War photographer Miller then served as a
lieutenant in the
U.S. Navy where he was assigned to
Edward Steichen's World War II
Naval Aviation Photographic Unit. He was among the first Western photographers to document the destruction at
Hiroshima.
Chicago After the war he resettled in Chicago. He won two consecutive
Guggenheim fellowships in 1946-1948, with which he worked on
The Way of Life of the Northern Negro. These images were published in his book ''Chicago's South Side, 1946-1948''. This project documented the wartime migration of
African Americans northward, specifically looking at the black community on the south side of Chicago, covering all the emotions in daily life. The people depicted are mostly ordinary people, but some celebrities appear, such as
Lena Horne,
Ella Fitzgerald,
Duke Ellington and
Paul Robeson.
Publication and recognition Miller taught at the
Institute of Design in Chicago before commissioning a Modernist house for their growing family from architect Mario Corbett in
Orinda, California in 1953. He was freelancing for
Life and with his wife Joan also worked with
Edward Steichen as an associate curator for
The Family of Man exhibition and accompanying book which opened at
New York City's
Museum of Modern Art in 1955. Steichen selected eight of Miller's photographs, including two of the birth of the photographer's son, for the show which traveled the world and was seen by more than 9 million visitors. wounded crew member Nov 1943Miller provided the photographs for ''A Baby's First Year
(1956) with Benjamin Spock and John B. Reinhart. Undertaking a three-year project inspired by The Family of Man
, he intensively photographed his own family. The resulting book The World is Young'' was published in 1958 and appeared as a 10-page picture essay in LIFE (13 Oct 1958). Miller was a contract photographer for
Life and served as president of
Magnum Photos from 1962-1966. Miller was a longtime member of the
American Society of Magazine Photographers and was named chairman in 1954. In 2000 Miller was awarded Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism,
Missouri School of Journalism,
University of Missouri, Columbia, MO
Environmentalism In 1970 Miller joined the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting as executive director of the Public Broadcasting Environmental Centre. After his retirement from photography in 1975, he co-founded the Forest Landowners of California organisation and worked to protect California's forests, in particular fighting tax laws that encouraged the felling of redwoods. ==Death and legacy==