Biography

Roland Miller, a Chicago native, studied photography at Utah State University, earning his B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees. For 14 years, he taught photography at Brevard Community College (now Eastern Florida State College) in Cocoa, Florida, where he was first exposed to nearby NASA launch sites. He then taught at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois, for six years before becoming dean of its Communication Arts, Humanities and Fine Arts division in 2008. Miller retired from higher education in 2018 to work full-time on his aerospace photography. He is Dean Emeritus at the College of Lake County.

Miller’s latest book, Old Glory: Iconic Flags and the Stories They Tell of America's 250-Year History, published by Black Dog and Leventhal, chronicles the United States’ history through 50 individual flags, released just in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary.

In 2017, Miller and Italian astronaut Paolo Nespoli completed a collaborative project documenting the interior of the International Space Station. The project culminated in the publication of their book, Interior Space: A Visual Exploration of the International Space Station.

In 2016, Miller’s project, Abandoned in Place: Preserving America’s Space History, which documented deactivated and repurposed space launch and test facilities across the United States, was published by the University of New Mexico Press.

Images from Miller’s Space Shuttle documentary project, Orbital Planes, have been exhibited at the Southeast Museum of Photography in Daytona Beach, Florida, and at the National Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola, Florida. A book of these images, Orbital Planes: A Personal Vision of the Space Shuttle, was published by Damiani Editore in June 2022.

Miller’s book, The Space Shuttle: A Mission-by-Mission Celebration of NASA’s Extraordinary Spaceflight Program, was published by Artisan Books in November 2022. The Space Shuttle features imagery from NASA photographers and astronauts and text by Miller.

Miller’s space-related photography has also been exhibited at the Galleria del Cembalo in Rome, Italy; the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center in Florida; The Huntsville Museum of Art in Huntsville, Alabama; The National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and numerous other art and science museums. Images from Miller’s space-related projects are held in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Illinois; the NASA Art Collection in Washington, DC; and the American Cultural Center at Xi’an International University in Xi’an, China, as well as in numerous public and private collections.

Miller’s work has been featured on CBS Saturday Morning and in Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine, National Geographic UK, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, International Business Times, The Daily Mail, Wired.com, and numerous other national and international publications.