Sadly, Peter Miller passed away on April 17, 2023. He was born on January 6, 1934. Peter was an American photographer, writer, and publisher best known for his photographs of rural Americans. The last book by Vermont photographer and writer Peter Miller was Vanishing Vermonters: Loss of a Rural Culture, published in 2017.
It’s hard to think about Vermont without remembering its most precious natural resources – its noteworthy people. Peter Miller’s book captures the essence of what we fondly remember about Vermont, it’s hard working, salt of the earth people. He personally gave me a copy of his book “A Lifetime of Vermont People“, which I enjoy until this day.
For many of us Vermonters, the faces in Peter’s books bring back memories of our most recent ancestry. Each image represents a lifetime of hard work and limited means. These images help tell the story of life in Vermont’s rural communities. Today, much has changed in Vermont. Some will say for the better, while others will mourn the passing of days when hard work and perseverance defined the people of Vermont.
By his 80th birthday in 2014, Miller was confronting the same financial pressures he believed were reshaping Vermont. To make ends meet, he began renting rooms in his home through Airbnb and turned to a local food pantry for assistance. He spoke candidly about the rising cost of living and his fear that Vermont was becoming unaffordable not only for him, but also for many of his friends and neighbors.
Writing in VTDigger that year, Miller reflected on the quiet endurance of independent Vermonters: “Self-employed Vermonters grumble, but we have carried on, and every so often we remember that we live in beauty. That’s the Vermont Way, and I think it is coming to an end.”
Miller died of pneumonia at Copley Hospital in Morrisville on April 17, 2023. He was 88 years old.
Unfortunately, his long time home in Waterbury, Vermont has been torn down.
