ARYANI EAST AND WEST

Miller’s photographic portraits explore the profundity of childhood and the evolution of one remarkable kid.

When Aryani Odie was not yet 3, her grandfather Martin Miller took a fascinating photograph of the child confronting the wonders of a deep-space nebula through her grandmother Gail’s big bay window. The child clutches a favorite stuffed Minnie Mouse toy in hand, back to the camera, as grandma Gail sits nearby blithely reading the newspaper, oblivious to the wondrous scene they are composing together. The picture perfectly encapsulates the theme of childlike wonder exceeding the narrow confines of adult vision that the author and longtime photographer had envisioned as his next project. But that project, as Miller states, failed to materialize. What did begin to coalesce instead, like the interstellar gas cloud captured in that initial image, was the burgeoning and ineffable spirit animating young Aryani’s life on earth. Miller likens his muse to Lewis Carroll’s own Alice, and the allusion is an apt one; there are worlds of wonder packed into Aryani’s life as it is chronicled over the next seven years. Her foray into traditional Bharatanatyam Indian dance beginning at age 5 is just one example in which her real life rivals the enchantment that may be encountered on the other side of Carroll’s looking glass. While limited, Miller’s accompanying text provides fascinating insights into the challenges involved in producing his images. As the author explains at the outset, young Aryani wanted nothing to do with the heavy cables and photographic contraptions the project demanded; it was only when she gained mastery of the camera’s remote control that the resulting series could continue. It’s an important tidbit that informs the unique personality seen developing in the ensuing pages. The title refers to the youngster’s rich cultural heritage: “With a father reared in the western tradition and a mother from the Hindu culture, Aryani has a foot in both worlds,” Miller writes. The resulting portrait of that cross-cultural pollination and childhood innocence is transcendent—and, as the author says, “only hints at the depths of this exceptional human being.”

A captivating photographic meditation full of warmth and charm.