DB Miller Photography: The World Began in Eden and Ended in LA Pt 1

This month I was given a week and a half to get my life together-- find work, get a new place to live, make art without interference. The last goal was done in a trip combining the inspiration that a road trip always sets off with the newer focus of using models for art photography. Knowing that fulltime and overtime wage work was around the corner, it also became clear that, with a few exceptions here and there, this would be the end of 5 months worth of shooting models on a regular basis.

I had spoken with one model in San Diego and decided to make a visit to family in the region and see what kind of response I would get through Model Mayhem, expecting either 0 interest or at least a few flakey people with primadonna gossipy dispositions... instead I ended up working with 7 of the most interesting, friendly, diverse, creative, photogenic human beings I have ever met. No personality disorders, all excited to collaberate.

Teagan was first, a performance artist/ crochet designer/ world traveler. She had amazing makeup which apparently was the first time she tried anything like that. Her shoot took place by the Huntington Beach Central Park and Library, and involved utilizing local children as assistants. It was so free and spontaneous yet you'd think the images were so planned and thought out... You can view her clothing creations here and music creations here.

Amanda was next, an entertainment studies student with a love of old timey film, music and fashion. My style of art is very heavily influenced by culture from the 1930s-1960s so it was a very good match getting her as a model. We shot a bit around Chinatown when she came up with the idea of shooting in an abandoned zoo in Griffith Park, an unbelievably rich location. Even a gruff ranger who thought I was shooting naughty stuff wilted in the sunshine of her demeanor.

Side anecdote: after our shoot, she took me back to where my car should've been-- cleverly parked at a broken meter in front of a hospital-- only to find it towed. She already skipped one class to do our shoot and couldn't miss another, but even though I had told her I could solve my own problems she returned anyways to save my ass from being eaten alive in ghetto LA. She even waited during the hour of drama involved getting my car out of impound. Unbelievably generous.

Day 2 began with Rosa, another college student majoring in Japanese. She was into the theatrical aspect of modeling and came up with really strong makeup. Originally we were set to shoot in a Japanese garden in Bel Air, but that got swapped when I went to a nearby Asian market on Sawtelle st and thought it had a lot of random potential.

This is a perfect example of random circumstance making the best photos... Rosa's egyptian cat, a busboy loading chairs in an elevator, a nonfunctioning escalator, a van w a Bruce Timm style Joker on it, all great stuff to play off of. This shoot probably gave the most bizarre and unique imagery and it largely was done at a shopping center.

Hanna, a dancer/ musician, was next. We ended up on Venice Beach... part of me wanted beach stuff, because I didn't have anything like that, but I didn't want my models to get bored because I assumed they always do shoots on a beach. The challenge was to do beach photos that were different from all the obvious images and Hanna, being flexible and creative and bouncy, was perfect for doing something new and cool.

This was about as chill as my shoots come, where I don't even remember taking any photos because it just felt like hanging out. Hanna has music sites here and here, great stuff.