Johnny Miller |
About:
Johnny Miller is a photographer currently working out of New York City. He was born in Lawrence, Kansas and went to Parsons School of Design in 1997 and earned his BFA. He assisted a lot of photographers and now represents Edge Reps (an agency that represents many photographers and helps them get more publicity). He became one of Martha Stewart’s staff photographers from 2006 until 2012. His work has been displayed at the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of the City of New York and the New York Historical Society. He has also had work collected in the Library of Congress. |
Style:
Miller photographs mainly food, specifically still lifes, and advertisements for companies & people. He has photographed many people’s culinary art to put in their cookbooks. He’s also photographed landscapes, architecture, nature, objects, and portraits, for personal or paid jobs. He gets really close up to the object/subject and gets every little detail. The background of his photos always relate well to the subject, when he's not up close.
Philosophy:
Major ideas behind Miller’s are capturing the details of food and memories. It seems as if all or most of the pictures he took were of food were not in a bright light. The background is usually black too. It seems as if he wants to make it seem like the food & cooking itself is mysterious and like it is all crazy. He captures still lifes and processes of cooking & personal parts that mean something to him.
Influences:
It isn't clear who his influences are but it could be anything from who he worked with to how he grew up. Martha Stewart influenced him into photographing food because she hired him and he worked with her for about 6 years. He now works for Edge Reps and there are a lot of cool artists on the website so they could have influenced him. Food was definitely one of his main inspirations and we can see that through his work, the quality of the pictures he takes, and the sheer amount of them. We can also see memories and landscapes/places that mean something to him, he photographs. Living in New York, I bet there is a lot of inspiration there, and that probably influenced some of his projects and the work that he does for people.
Miller photographs mainly food, specifically still lifes, and advertisements for companies & people. He has photographed many people’s culinary art to put in their cookbooks. He’s also photographed landscapes, architecture, nature, objects, and portraits, for personal or paid jobs. He gets really close up to the object/subject and gets every little detail. The background of his photos always relate well to the subject, when he's not up close.
Philosophy:
Major ideas behind Miller’s are capturing the details of food and memories. It seems as if all or most of the pictures he took were of food were not in a bright light. The background is usually black too. It seems as if he wants to make it seem like the food & cooking itself is mysterious and like it is all crazy. He captures still lifes and processes of cooking & personal parts that mean something to him.
Influences:
It isn't clear who his influences are but it could be anything from who he worked with to how he grew up. Martha Stewart influenced him into photographing food because she hired him and he worked with her for about 6 years. He now works for Edge Reps and there are a lot of cool artists on the website so they could have influenced him. Food was definitely one of his main inspirations and we can see that through his work, the quality of the pictures he takes, and the sheer amount of them. We can also see memories and landscapes/places that mean something to him, he photographs. Living in New York, I bet there is a lot of inspiration there, and that probably influenced some of his projects and the work that he does for people.
Pictures
When I saw this, I figured they egg whites whipped to stiff peaks. I thought this would be easier than I thought. Turns out, egg whites are really hard to reach to "stiff peaks", but it was fun trying. I have always experimented with egg whites in the past and I think they're really cool. Recipes that include egg whites are always fluffy and it is really cool to see how they turn out. Egg whites have always fascinated me and how they work, simply whipping them creates this, to me it is crazy. Even though the original image is brighter, I wanted to make it darker because it showed up really cool when I was playing with the adjustments. I also took this one in the snow because the egg whites looked similar and I thought it would add cool contrast & similarity.
In Miller's website, he photographs the seasons in Springs, New York, where he lives. In the subsection of "Springs, NY" called "Winter", there is pictures of things that he saw in the winter there. He took those objects and took pictures of the. He doesn't title any of his pictures but I can tell that these are sticks. Obviously I couldn't find the exact stick so that's why it doesn't look exactly the same. I decided to take the stick in the snow because it is snowing outside and it since it follows the theme of winter, I thought it was a cool white background.
I decided to replicate this image because I love chocolate. I wasn't 100% sure if it was chocolate or not but it looks very similar. It was really easy to recreate because I just got a plate and spreaded homemade chocolate frosting on it. I got really close and captured the ridges of the spreading lines. It was much easier to recreate than I originally thought and I really love his idea & the way my image turned out. I really liked taking this photo because it let out my creative side of cooking and decorating (I decorate cakes with my aunt all the time), and even though I was able to get the same lighting, I thought I did a really good job of recreating.
Personal Artist Statement:
Miller has an array of images to choose from, which made it really hard for me to pick one. He has so much variety in his style and what he puts on his website. I was originally going to do ones that all had to do with the pre-steps of baking (like uncooked items), to make a theme, but it turns out it was really hard to get those in natural light without making them eventually black & white. I chose these ones because they seemed easy enough to recreate but still not super easy. The egg whites were super hard to recreate but it was still fun and interesting. I love chocolate and so that was an easy one for me. The stick was fun because I had to walk around a lot to find a stick that looked similar enough but not too similar. I also love winter and it reminds me of difficult beauty, the idea that it takes time and real thought for one to see it as beautiful while it is still simple. The whole process was really fun, learning and researching many different artists was also fun and I am glad that I ultimately chose Miller because I got to see a lot of variety and try to think of what I would do. All
Miller has an array of images to choose from, which made it really hard for me to pick one. He has so much variety in his style and what he puts on his website. I was originally going to do ones that all had to do with the pre-steps of baking (like uncooked items), to make a theme, but it turns out it was really hard to get those in natural light without making them eventually black & white. I chose these ones because they seemed easy enough to recreate but still not super easy. The egg whites were super hard to recreate but it was still fun and interesting. I love chocolate and so that was an easy one for me. The stick was fun because I had to walk around a lot to find a stick that looked similar enough but not too similar. I also love winter and it reminds me of difficult beauty, the idea that it takes time and real thought for one to see it as beautiful while it is still simple. The whole process was really fun, learning and researching many different artists was also fun and I am glad that I ultimately chose Miller because I got to see a lot of variety and try to think of what I would do. All
Sources
Info Sources:
https://www.johnny-miller.com/ https://www.edgereps.com/ https://www.instagram.com/johnny_miller_/ |
Image Sources:
https://www.johnny-miller.com/ https://www.edgereps.com/ |