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The 2006 'Best Of' Series
For the second annual Best Of issue of the ASMP Bulletin, we selected twenty projects from a field of nearly sixty candidates. It was a tough decision and we thank all those who submitted their work. We hope you will enjoy reading about the projects featured in print and here on the ASMP Web site.
Vermont Gathering Places book project
Peter Miller started with a manageable timeframe to produce his latest book, commissioned by the Preservation Trust of Vermont. Yet a fall from his roof shortened his work cycle to a mere six months. Miller traveled the state seven days a week to research, photograph and write his assigned 40 stories. He managed to meet his deadline — and picked up the 2006 Vermonter of the Year award for his efforts to preserve the state’s culture.
Self-portrait of Peter Miller
All images in this article © Peter Miller
ASMP: How long have you been in business?
PM: 35 years.
ASMP: How long have you been an ASMP member?
PM: One year at present. I was also a member for a number of years during the 1970’s but dropped out.
ASMP: What are your photographic specialties?
PM: Documentary journalism, stock photography, fine art. I’m known for my black-and-white environmental portraits.
ASMP: Please summarize the equipment used in this work.
PM: Vermont Gathering Places book: Leica M6, Plaubel veriwide, Nikon D2X. Darkroom and G4 (now a G5 Mac). Any other books I do will be with digital or scanned images made from negatives.
Bambi Freeman
ASMP: In the time you’ve been photographing your state, what do you find has changed the most about this subject matter?
PM: We are losing our gathering places as small communities bow under sprawl or a new out-of-state presence that does not comprehend the Vermont culture. In other words, the native Vermonter, who photographs so well, is an endangered species.
ASMP: Has your photography or image-making process changed as a result?
PM: Not for the present. It is mostly straight on, direct. There are too many tract mansions in what used to be farm hayfields.
K Miller
ASMP: Do you feel that doing writing and research in addition to the photographs adds to the strength of your imagery?
PM: Of course. Some photographs are worth 10,000 words, a few cannot be enhanced by any words, but most photos need words.
Will and Rowena
ASMP: Please describe the most challenging part of this latest project.
PM: Deadline. _Vermont Gathering Places _had to be completed in less than a year, and that was from concept to photography, writing, research, design, prepress, printing and delivery. The book was done under contract with the Preservation Trust of Vermont. As I took all the photos, did the research and the writing, I ended up working eight months, seven days a week. An injury falling off a ladder slowed down the first three months to pill-popping, pain-killing photo shoots.
Peacham
ASMP: Tell us about the Vermont Farm Fund and Vermont Farm Women Fund and why you established these funds.
PM: The Vermont Farm Fund was established to help farmers in the northeast section of Vermont who were suffering from low milk prices. I set up the fund through a community foundation and donated $1,500, or $1.00 a book, through the sales of the book, Vermont People. The Vermont Farm Women Fund was set up under the guidance of Women in Agriculture and is run by the Women’s Ag Network, which is part of the extension service of the University of Vermont. Again, I donated proceeds from the sale of the book, Vermont Farm Women and an exhibition of 30 large prints of the farm women used in fund raisers. Now I am not directly involved in either fund.
Richmond
ASMP: What effect did your selection as Vermonter of the Year have on your career?
PM: It should help to get me a grant to archive my black-and-white [collection], which I intend to will to a library or museum, and it will probably sell some books. In this business, you have to keep your name up front. I have a mailing list with every newspaper in Vermont to which I send releases.
ASMP: Please tell us about Yankee Images, the agency you’ve set up to license your images.
PM: It was set up as a regional agency and was run by my nephew, whom I mentored. It turned out to be a disaster.
Charlene Rooney
ASMP: What are the advantages and disadvantages to this arrangement rather than working with a stock distributor?
PM: Not much. The best way is to work with agencies and then also sell your own photos (and no other photographers’) online. I am now building a Web site in India for my stock and wall-art photography. I am also working with Picade, a cooperative start-up stock agency for RM, which is limited to the number of photographers and the number of images they can submit. This means very high-grade photos in a very well edited archive.
Randolph
Many of the new and smaller agencies now are acting as portals, and some are not on the up and up. However, Getty Images, for all the antipathy some photographers have against them, has been very important to my cash flow. The trouble with stock is that there is too much concern about money, not enough about creativity.
Ann Burke
ASMP: What is the most important thing you’ve learned about book publishing after publishing eight books? Which book was most challenging?
PM: You have to be nuts to self-publish books. I did it because 13 publishers turned down my first book, Vermont People, which I knew would sell well. At least, I bet my house on it. I was told I wouldn’t sell 2,000 books over three years. I sold 3,000 in six weeks, but I did market like mad.
I have self-published, under Silver Print Press, four of my black-and-white documentary photo and profile text books: Vermont People, Vermont Farm Women, Vermont Gathering Places and People of the Great Plains. (Random House published The First Time I Saw Paris.) They are all coffee-table books with duotone black-and-white photographs. They are expensive to print, and stock photography sales kept me going.
Rowena Austin
I also wrote a book on photography and two on skiing: The 30,000 Mile Ski Race, The Skier’s Almanac and The Photographer’s Almanac. All are long out of print.
If you publish your own books, you must niche market. You cannot fight the big publishers and distributors. The chain bookstores look at books as a grocery store looks at food products: If it doesn’t sell right away, they take it off the shelves and replace it. You have to be very professional, with good design and copy-editing skills, and be savvy about printing. Asia is the best bet now for printing, but you need the time for shipping. And don’t forget warehousing. Books are a problem and eventually the internet will change the parameters. However, my books are an important contribution to a regional culture and will be around long after I am dead.
Otis Hart
The hardest book to do was Vermont People because I didn’t know anything about book publishing and made awful mistakes. I was saved by using experts to do the design and printing who were a lot smarter than me. This I learned as a reporter at the old LIFE Magazine: Use the best talent you can find or can afford.
My favorite book was People of the Great Plains. From 1993 to 1996 I drove 40,000 miles through the Plains pulling my 1968, 18-foot Airstream. I just stumbled onto stories and had a wonderful time with the people I interviewed and photographed. The book won a number of awards, including The Image Bank Award for Visual Excellence. I believe it was for $20,000 and it all went into printing. I lost money on that book for I was still inexperienced.
Margaret Hawkins Arthur
ASMP: What is the most important advice you would give to other photographers about publishing a book of their work?
PM: Don’t, unless you are obsessed, are rich, like stress and have room to store a couple of skids of books or can find someone else to pay for your time and the production of the book. You don’t have to go to Mongolia to do a book; some of the best subjects live within 50 miles of your home.
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