White Photograph

Born in 1968 in Singapore, Charles is a self-taught photographer with a particular interest in floral still life as well as portrait photography. After much travel throughout Europe and the United States and finishing his studies at universities in the UK and in France, Charles first followed a career in London before sharing his time between France and Spain to enjoy a less pressurised environment in which to concentrate on his photography. Charles has a passion for revisiting of the 17th century Dutch floral still life paintings with their fanatical focus on composition and detail. Charles explores this approach by growing most of the flowers and creating the backgrounds and props himself. The final image, composed of flowers not usually in bloom at the same time dotted with insects and other items not native to each other, is the result of digitally compositing hundreds of individual photos with the shadows and highlights added as needed. These “impossible” compositions construct a visual feast that hark back to the golden age of Dutch still life painting, where everything is beautiful and it always spring or summer. Trying to master light and shadow in human portraits was a natural consequence of the still-life work and his inspiration still lies in the Dutch golden age, learning from the Old Masters (Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals…). The additional element here is the engagement and interaction between the sitter and the audience. Whether the sitter is in costume or modern dress, Charles achieves a fine art painterly effect reminiscent of the mood of the baroque. www.charlesmiller.co.uk instagram: @charlesaymiller