Milton Miller

Milton Miller’s photographs of Chinese models are among the finest artistic portraits in early photography of China. This imposing elderly woman wears an elaborately embroidered silk robe with a matching vest and skirt – the ceremonial garb of the wife of a Qing official. She gazes forward directly at the camera establishing a powerful connection with the viewer. “The sense of visual immediacy and the woman’s individualized appearance reconfirm the picture’s identity as a portrait and explain why this and similar images by Miller have been praised as ‘the most significant body of nineteenth-century Chinese official portraits’” (Wu Hung).