In the early 1990's when I came to Eastern Market, the exhibitors were largely of two types. They were artists (i.e. young and unkempt) and there were flea market folks (i.e. older and more sedentary.) At first glance, there was not a lot of in-between. But when I started waiting in line to get a space in front of Market 5 Gallery, now the north hall of Eastern Market, I remember seeing some folks that did not fit these stereotypes. I wondered, as I contemplated one guy's tasseled loafers, chinos and buttoned-down dress shirt, whether he had gotten lost on the way to the golf course.
In 1994 I went to the Penland School of Craft in North Carolina for the first time, for a two-week residency to study metalsmithing with a focus on repousse and chasing. I will never forget one guy in the class. He was really old, like thirty-eight or forty! I mean, a real fossil. I could have blown the dust off this dude. In retrospect, I think, gosh ,we're cute when we're young! I was not yet twenty-five then. He was a lawyer and his wife was getting a PH. D., in social work. His goal was to quit law and become a full-time artist. Weird!
What possesses someone, after or during a long successful career, to want to fundamentally change his or her life? In conversation with Eastern Market photography Steven L. Miller, one can find insights into this question. When Mr. Miller came to the Market to start showing his photography eight years ago, he was 56 years old.
( Tool of the trade)
( Steve's stand at Eastern Market)
He was born in 1946 in San Francisco and grew up in Seattle, Washington; his father was in broadcasting and Steven remembers having dinner with Edward R. Marrow when he himself was only fourteen. He went to Eastern Washington University and has dual bachelor's degrees in sociology and journalism. H
e finished school in 1968, and his first forays into a professional life were in journalism. However, he soon combined writing ability with concern for the well being of others and started working as a public relations associate with the United Way. His work in public relations evolved into fund development, which culminated in a job as the CEO of several American United Way branches.
(Steve Miller)
However, there was always photography. When he was eight years old, he was given a movie camera and then later a Brownie. In his role in public relations at the United Way he was always taking/making images. Fifteen years ago a board member told Mr. Miller that he saw the world differently. This board member suggested that he go to the International Film and Television Workshops in Rockport, Maine. He went eight times, studying with noted photographer Mary Ellen Mark. Steven says that "... going to those workshops helped me learn how to see".
At fifty-six he felt that he had "... a body of work that had been done and another part of myself that needed to be explored." Steven goes further, saying "... I chose to take a risk to become someone different". He also noted that he needed an outlet from his public structured life. He says, "...the camera allows you to become a different person". His last post as CEO of a United Way was in Ohio.
Mr. Miller has been married for thirty-seven years and has a son and a daughter. His daughter's first job is what brought him and his wife initially to Washington, D.C. It was during one of these trips to visit his daughter that he first visited Eastern Market.
It was at Eastern Market that he met another photographer selling his work in the school yard and said to himself, "that that would be fun to do." In conversation with Mr. Miller, he also noted that he felt the commercial market for his work was better in Washington ,D.C. than in the Midwest. He indicated that his collectors are women between twenty and forty with discretionary income and an international view of the world.
The first time he set up at The Flea Market at Eastern Market he sold two pictures. He was hooked! Steve told me "... I like the sense of being part of an international family". He also remarked on his first impression of being an exhibitor at Eastern Market "...I felt that each vendor was more interested in helping me than competing with me".
It must be noted that Steve Miller is part of a tradition at Eastern Market. My first view of the market at twenty-three was limited: there have always been folks who have taken their second souffle at The Market, most notably photographers Larry Hassen and Jim Spillane, who had long careers as lawyers before coming to The Market. Of note also are Larry Gallo {Stio Design}, who was a lobbyist before coming to the market as a marker of ancient coin jewelry, and Bernadette Mayo {Bami Products} who makes body products such as soaps and lotions as well as hand-knitting clothing. She had had a long career as a Federal accountant. However, Eleanor Drabo (jewelry) and Cornell Burnett (textiles) both were college professors, the latter of African Studies at Manhattan Community College in New York and the former a professor of Biology at Morgan State University in Baltimore: they continued teaching while coming to the Market on weekends.
Steve Miller has traveled extensively for his art. In the last eight years he has traveled to thirty-six countries.
Mr. Miller is a classic photographer of the black and white image, in the tradition of Dorothea Lange, James Van Der Zee and Roy Decarava. About three years ago, he stopped using the darkroom and now has gone digital. In visiting his studio, I had no idea what to expect. One of my first student jobs in college was as a techie in the darkroom, but there are no longer 'stopbaths' or wet dripping images, and the dodging and burning now requires the constant movement of a mouse rather than a piece of paper with a hole in it. But the images are just as rich, with the same exploration of the zone system and the same respect for the 'grey scale' that one would find in 'old school' black and white work.
(Creation)
On image making and traveling--I asked Steve Miller a provocative question. Background,- years ago at Eastern Market I challenged photographer Jim Spillane. His images of people were always of "the other" i.e. non-western folks. I asked why he took pictures of them, and when he was going to take pictures of folks that looked like him and lived in Bethesda or Chevy Chase. I posited that these
suburban folks would not like being made objects for consumption. Mr. Spillane never took up my challenge.
(Inspecting the print)
What neither Mr. Miller nor Mr. Spillane knew was that my graduate thesis was on the image of African women in the travel writing of European Slave traders. People's portrayal in art is very powerful.
(Steve Miller at his stand at Eastern Market)
Recently, Mr. Miller returned from a photographic exploration of Thailand. While Mr. Miller's body of work as seen at Eastern Market does not reflect the same focus on "the other" as an object that Mr. Spillane's had shown, Mr. Miller showed me one image of a Thai women and child which reminded me of some of Mr. Spillane's images. In conversation with Steve, I had to pose the question: why travel and take pictures of "the other"?
( Mr. Miller's travel reading)
Steve Miller responded that "...part of why I take pictures is to help people to see that people around us have different life styles..." He further stated that he is "...constantly aware of people in situations where they are at risk or undervalued...I want to share these circumstances with others..."
Now, eight years on at Eastern Market, Steve Miller is also a teacher of photography. He started teaching at the Arlington Art Center in Virginia four years ago; his classes are "Eye of the Photographer" and "The Photo Essay". For the past year, he has also been teaching a class in Pennsylvania at Longwood Galleries in Kennett Square. He also writes about photography, travel, et cetera, at
http://www.stevenlmillerphotography.wordpress.com/ .
In 2005, something happened. He was at Eastern Market at his stand when someone saw his work. He was invited to lunch by this person to meet a curator at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. Mr. Miller now has nine images as part of the permanent collection of that museum. These images were chosen from his portfolio of 'street photography. This is one of his images in the Smithsonian's collection.
Le second souffle- the second breath. Langston Hughes ask in his famous poem Harlem
"What happens to a dream deferred?" At Eastern Market, many can say their dreams are deferred no longer: they have made for themselves a second breath.
(Chicken's Pride by: Steven L. Miller)
Witnessing,
Sonda T. Allen
Turtle's Webb
(Steven L. Miller)
e finished school in 1968, and his first forays into a professional life were in journalism. However, he soon combined writing ability with concern for the well being of others and started working as a public relations associate with the United Way. His work in public relations evolved into fund development, which culminated in a job as the CEO of several American United Way branches. 
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