Arts, Etc.Fine Art

‘Face to Face’ displays Third World

A new photography exhibit has been mounted in the Carlson Gallery, documenting several years of travel Randy Miller photographed for World Vision Inter­national. “Face to Face” will run through Dec. 20. / photo by Brian Murphy
A new photography exhibit has been mounted in the Carlson Gallery, documenting several years of travel Randy Miller photographed for World Vision Inter­national. “Face to Face” will run through Dec. 20. / photo by Brian Murphy

by Lori Cruz
Staff Writer

“Face to Face: Photographing the Developing World” is the latest exhibit being shown in the Irene Carlson Gallery, honoring the work of La Verne alumnus Randy Miller.

The exhibit features more than 20 photographs of men, women, children and their communities in Third World countries. Miller began the project in 1988 as part of his job with World Vision International. The photographs tell the stories of people ranging from a man in northern Romania, to a dancer in Bangkok, to a child in Bolivia.

The exhibit opened Monday in the Gallery on the bottom floor of Miller Hall and will run through Dec. 20.

Miller will lecture in La Fetra Auditorium on Nov. 2 at 5 p.m. He will discuss his work, along with telling some of the stories behind the photographs. He will also lecture about his technique. A reception will immediately follow the lecture in the Gallery.

A favorite photograph of Miller’s in the exhibit is of a boy named Wilbur who lives in a small village called Villcapujio, which is 200 miles south of La Paz in Bolivia. Wilbur is trying to work a well that World Vision helped install.

“It’s a very brown, lunar landscape with little vegetation,” said Miller, describing the photo.

Another photo Miller commented on was also taken during his trip to Bolivia in 1992. It is of a young woman named Sophia. He captured the essence of life in a small village as Sophia prepares a meal in a cooking hut.

His favorite time to photograph is when people are at the markets in their villages.

“I like to photograph once I have been around long enough that I’m not such an oddity,” he said. “I like people to be in their relaxed atmosphere, where they are comfortable.”

World Vision International is a humanitarian relief and development agency which goes into various developing countries to assist the community with long- and short-term care in crises.

“We don’t go in and just do a quick fix,” Miller said.

Among other things, they have supplied pharmaceuticals to certain countries and installed wells in Bolivia. Their main agenda is to go into a developing country to “meet with the people, get their input, so we can meet their needs,” Miller added.

The agency has been in existence for 45 years and has offices in 40 countries.

He is now the managing editor of Together, a journal within World Vision that focuses on the long-term aspects of development assistance.

“It’s a gratifying job. For a long time India and Korea were on the receiving end of our services, but now there are offices there,” said Miller.

One of Miller’s future goals is to create personality profiles for Together.

“I want to photograph the individuals out there who are working hard, with dirt under their nails,” he said.

Miller graduated from ULV in 1978. He started doing photography as a child with his father’s camera. It was at ULV, under the direction of Gary Colby, associate professor of photography, that Miller began to take photography seriously.

When Colby asked Miller to display his work, Miller said he felt honored at the chance.

“They have had such good work in this hall [Carlson Gallery], I am honored to be part of this tradition,” Miller said.

Although his traveling takes him away from his wife, Sheri and their children, Kayla and Tyler, for about three weeks twice a year, he loves the experiences. He would love to go back to Asia, South America and Vietnam and has yet to travel and photograph Africa.

Lori Cruz, Editorial Director
Lori Cruz
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