Richard C. (Dick) Miller was a photographer who worked in Los Angeles from the early 1940s to the 1970s. At various times in his career, he did outstanding work in several fields. In the 1940s, he took commercial photographs for magazines and printed them using the carbro process: a little-known, 90+-step printing technique that uses pigment inks to make beautifully saturated, permanent color images. Women in Hats, a book comprising his images of women from that period, is for sale on this site. Almost 70 years after he did this work, in 2009 the Getty Museum featured Dick’s carbro prints–both commercial and the ones he took for his own pleasure–in a show on the carbro process.

During that early period of his career, he hired a little-known model named Norma Jeane Dougherty–later known as Marilyn Monroe. His pictures of her are still stunning today. The last pictures he took of her were during the filming of Some Like It Hot. A portfolio of his pictures of her can be found on this site, where it is for sale.

His work on the Some Like It Hot set occurred during the Hollywood phase of his career. He photographed all the leading movie stars during the golden age of the movies, from Clark Gable to Shirley McLain, at over  70 movie locations. Among his best-known images from that period are of James Dean on the set of Giant, digital reproductions of which were featured at the 2007 opening of the Beverly Hills gallery, Celebrity Vaults (those prints too are for sale on this site). On that same set he also photographed Elizabeth Taylor, and some of his shots of Dean and Taylor together are iconic.

Throughout his career Dick shot photographs, both black and white and color, of landscapes, still lives, and people. This deep commitment to photography was the basis of his relationship with his best friend, Brett Weston, for the many decades of their friendship. His pictures of Brett and Edward Weston over the years are collected in a portfolio, The Westons, that is for sale on this site.

Please browse the site to see the beautiful legacy of Richard C. Miller’s long and rich career.