INTIMATIONS

Author and photographer Miller challenges himself and his readers by exploring a world of contradictions through the lens of a camera.

Before offering a series of photographs taken over 50 years, the author presents his own history as a photographer, the inspirations for his work, and some technical camera jargon that will be most useful to other experienced photographers. These first several pages draw on the ideas of photographers Minor White and Paul Caponigro, as well as those of psychologist Carl Jung, to explain the author’s attraction to the subjects of his photographs. These works feature alluring images of nature and detailed images of technology, including computers and thermonuclear weapons as well as magnifications of bacteria and viruses under a microscope. Miller tells of discovering himself as an artist as he edited his photos; although the reason for a particular shot may begin as a mystery, Miller effectively uses each one to examine what it means to depend on intuition, or the “unconsciousapplication of rational thought,” in one’s art. This leads to the central themes of the collection: the relationships between order and chaos, and nature and technology. Miller is an artist who was educated as a physicist and served as a U.S. Army officer; as such, his photos not only investigate the natural, abstract world, but also the world of order and science. The collection is clearly divided into eight parts that address vastly different subjects but explore similar concepts; Miller prefaces each section with an introspective, poetic summary, but it always remains the reader’s gratifying responsibility to assign meaning to each image.

An exquisite and insightful set of diverse photographs.