Anne Miller Photography

When I create a piece of photographic art, several factors drive my decision-making process. I want the viewer to see the print as a thing in itself, not as a photographic depiction of some external object. I tend to focus on shape and line, pattern or relationships among shapes and forms, texture, balance, and especially color. The original “subject” of the photograph is seldom what interests me, except insofar as it attracts my attention and fires my imagination.

I am drawn to my subjects intuitively. Usually an emotional response spurs me to capture the initial image. A sense of spiritual connectedness drives the process of discovering intrinsic beauty and sustains it in the darkroom. This determines the colors and shapes that appeal to me and the way I try to direct the viewer’s eye in the composition. If I am successful, the viewers of my artwork relate to it from within themselves in a fresh way, not from habit (“if you’ve seen one tree, you’ve seen them all”) or through someone else’s interpretation (“it’s sensuous,” “it’s soft”). It is easier to step aside from our preconceptions and see unexpected beauty when the object of interest is not instantly recognizable, classifiable, and dismissible.

Although I find much joy simply in making these images, I always hope that others will relate to and connect with my work in a very personal way. For instance, at a show not long ago a woman who had recently lost a loved one saw my Fiery Tree. She told me that it spoke to her, that the light above and behind the writhing tree reminded her that even during dark and painful times, there’s always an abiding light beyond. When I took that photograph I was on a spiritual retreat, wrestling with a dark time of my own, and those feelings of loss and reconciliation drove the choices I made during the process of creating the final image.

The events of my life naturally influence what I’m attracted to as an artist. Whether I’m struggling or feeling no pressure and free to play, inevitably the work I do reflects who I am and what I feel at the moment.






After studying art and music at the University of Northern Iowa and receiving a Master of Arts degree in Music Performance from the University of Iowa, I taught flute at a small college in northwestern Iowa. Later I moved to Davis, California and taught music at the University of California. I became a member of the Davis Chamber Ensemble and then the Tobrini Wind Quintet which played concerts in the Bay Area and the Sacramento Valley. In the course of owning a small business, I decided to make a career change to the field of computer science and became a software engineer and then a database architect. I continue to play music as an avocation.

Photography as a medium for art has been my interest for a long time. When digital photography technology became adequate, I connected my artistic roots with my technical skills to create my photographic artwork.

Anne Miller