Street photography by Henry C Miller

I kept this little lo-res print tacked up on my office wall for many years until I had to move out. It comes from the extensive portfolio of a master of Fine Art photography, my late friend Henry C Miller. His father was an accomplished photographer who worked for Agfa. He taught his young son photography in New York City in the late '50s and early'60s.

The C in HCM is for Curtis. I was privileged to meet Curt in later life, when he was producing black and white work of the highest possible technical and artistic standards.. I'm talkng about Ansel Adams' print quality, Minor White's attention to detail, Annie Leibovitz's observation of people, Cartier-Bresson's timing. Really. Truly. I mean it. And I know masses about this stuff. Wealthy New Yorkers were buying his photographic art for their Manhatten lofts from summer-season galleries in The Berkshires. Silver Birch trees by the Housatonic River and the like, for example.

I use this picture when I am encouraging photographers to widen their skills in the genre called "Street Photography". I tell them to find someone who captures their interest, then to get in close, to quickly develop an honest, non-judgemental rapport, then make a picture of the subject in context. Oh, and promise them a print or an emailed copy (then deliver on that promise).

Much of this technique is what successful photojournalists practice daily. Those of you who already know this might take a moment to look carefully at how Curt included certain of the surrounding graphics to edit his story in his Leica 35mm camera, all the while knowing the limits of traditional film & paper and without employing any post-production digital trickery -- no mean feat on the busy and crowded pavements of a bustling city for a man with a pressured day job. Curt was streetwise for sure.

Comments

[Figjamandlimecordial]

A superb photo, Peter.. x

[Donnamarie]

Yes, this is a very special image that Curt was very proud of. In fact, it was hanging at the Vermont Center for Photography in March 2012 for the entire month, along with another of his prints. One of the last pictures I took of Curt was of him standing alongside his 2 prints at the VCP.