Garry Fabian Miller

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Garry Fabian Miller (born 1957 in Bristol) is an English photographer known for his landscape and abstract photography.

1 Biography
2 Photography career
3 Exhibitions, publications and museum collections
4 Notes

[edit] Biography

Miller was born in Bristol in 1957^[1]. He took his first pictures while staying on the Shetland Islands in the summer of 1974. Miller lives and works at Homelands, Devon^[1].

Garry has worked extensively on the inter-relationships between art and spirituality, and devotional art in the landscape. He has also combined his inately spiritual side with his love of gardening; using the toil, meditation and patience needed to garden for the long term as almost a form of prayer. His own garden at Homelands has been featured in Gardens Illustrated magazine.

Probably the better known of his early works are the bi-sected land/seascapes taken from his then home at Clevedon in North Somerset across the Severn Estuary toward the coast of southern Wales. His move to Lincolnshire saw the beginnings of the major works using flora and biological materials (such as Honesty) and the creation of the short-lived but effective gallery space in his garden called 'The Barn'; in which artists such as Roger Ackling and Richard Devereaux exhibited. The break up of his marriage produced some profoundly emotive and moving pieces in a series called 'The Healing'.

The move to Dartmoor and remarriage has seen Fabian Miller establish a unique place in contempory art. His works are highly sought after and very 'well bought' by some big names in private collecting and yet he remains under-rated and almost unknown outside of a small circle.

It must be noted that, even though he is now accepted by the Arts Establishment, Fabian Miller achieved his early success without help, support or funding from any Arts Council. His faith in his art and his drive to produce it against the odds speaks volumes about the man.

[edit] Photography career

Much of Miller's early work was landscape based^[2], focused on the horizon between the sky and land or sea, but since 1985 he has made essentially abstract photography without camera or film, exploring the possibilities of image making with light itself. His methods look back to the early pioneers of photography in the 1830’s and 1840’s, passing light through objects - especially plants - or through filters of oil or coloured water onto photosensitive paper. However in his return to basics, the fundamentals of form and colour, he has continued to move his medium forward and has a deserved reputation as one of the most progressive artists working with photography today..

[edit] Exhibitions, publications and museum collections

Miller has exhibited extensively in Europe, America and Japan and has work in many museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum, New York and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London^[3]. A major monograph Illumine was published in June 2005 with an extensive essay by Martin Barnes, Head of Photography at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Other publications include Thoughts of a Night Sea (2003) and Honesty (1992), a collaboration with Sister Wendy Beckett, who contributes a series of meditations on Miller's pictures.