Mr. David Miller is the 2014 winner of the Canada Council for the Arts’s Duke and Duchess of York Prize.
The Duke and Duchess of York Prize was created and endowed by the Government of Canada in 1986 to mark The Duke of York’s marriage to Sarah, Duchess of York. The Duke himself is a keen photographer and the establishment of the prize was a fitting commemoration of his wedding.
The Prize is the only Canada Council prize dedicated exclusively to photography, past recipients of the Prize have included artists such as Althea Thauberger, Michel Campeau, Jeff Thomas, Greg Staats and Janieta Eyre.
There are no applications or nominations for the prize; rather it is awarded to that year’s most outstanding recipient of the Canada Council’s project grants to visual artists in photography. The Prize showcases how the Council’s grants and prizes both support new creativity and celebrate excellence in the arts.
From September through to January 2014, Miller, with support from his grant, is continuing to explore the concept of photographs as memorials. His projects, The Museum, Visitors and Conservators, will take him to Central Europe to photograph memory sites, primarily devoted to Jewish Heritage. He will focus on visitors engaging with the sites, the workspaces behind the scenes (archives, conservation labs, offices) and the workers who have the complex task of safeguarding the collections of these sites and constructing them into coherent, accessible narratives.
Born in Montréal, Miller has worked across Canada, Europe, the U.S., and in Israel, China and Mexico. Since 1984, his work has been shown in some 80 solo and group exhibitions, and can be found in several public collections, including the Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa. He has collaborated with other artists on performances, media works and public art projects. As a curator, he has organized over a dozen exhibitions. A passionate teacher, David Miller has mentored young artists across Canada, in Europe and in Mexico.
Find out more about the prize on the Canada Council’s website here.