Graham Miller

Rhonda and Chantelle, Australia, 2007,  from “Suburban Splendor”

Graham Miller (b. 1966, Hong Kong) is a photographic artist and co-founder of FotoFreo a biennial international festival of photography based in Fremantle, Western Australia. His work has been exhibited internationally and throughout Australia, including Pingyao International Festival of Photography China, Recontres Photographie Internationale de France, Kaunas Photo Lithuania, Australian Centre for Photography in Sydney, the Perth Institute of Contemporary Art, and the Photography Gallery of Western Australia. He is interested in the ambiguity of images. The way that all photographs have elements of fabrication and truth making.

About the Photograph:

“This image is part of the series Suburban Splendor, which I started in 2005 in Perth, Australia where I live. The series emerged out of the frustration and helplessness I felt to a political climate that saw the escalation of the Iraqi war, the mistreatment of asylum seekers, and an apathy by our government to a growing environmental crisis. From this feeling, I began to construct suburban visual narratives which became metaphors of isolation and disconnection, and meditations on human frailty. In the introduction to his collection of short stories ‘Where I’m Calling From’ Raymond Carver quotes V.S Pritchett”s description of the short story as something glimpsed from the corner of the eye, in passing. First the glimpse, the glimpse given life and turned into something which will illuminate the moment. Many of my own photographs take shape in a similar way. I caught a glimpse of the red interior of a friend’s car in the fading light. This fragment remained with me, and later I was able to figure out how to incorporate it into an image which would resonate and achieve the emotional tone that I wanted.”