PASSAGE: EUROPE
Photographs by Richard Copeland Miller

Foreword by Philip Levine

Printed in 600-line screen tritone and quadtone.
86 reproductions, 156 pages, 12 ½" x 12 ½"

Limited to an edition of 2,900 regular hardbound copies, and a signed, numbered, custom-bound and slipcased edition of 100.

Publication date: 2000

Passage: Europe is a rare and beautiful lyric poem through the medium of photography. Richard Copeland Miller’s haunting images in Passage: Europe reveal his incisive and compassionate vision of the mysteries and realities of everyday life.

Passage: Europe brings together profound images from the streets and countryside of Europe in a touching portrayal of the human condition. With an unflinching yet sensitive eye, Miller captures the random dramas of daily existence, interspersing the sweetness of life with the struggle for survival. Miller’s photographs reveal the movement and rhythm of life, the fleeting details and mysteries unfolding in common places and chance moments. His photographs embody the ineffable spirit of every man, every woman, and every child who fights for life in a troubled world.

Miller’s Photographs, glimpses of brief moments in time, are revealing in their depth as they expose truths, half-truths, and sometimes imagined stories. A solitary passenger sits in a trolley on a frozen Krakow morning. Alone. Anonymous. Heading to the workplace. Always the same place, always the same track, often the same thoughts. He sees himself as we do and wonders where his features have gone and why. . . . Stark trees in a winter landscape. Solemn, haunting remains of the Birkenau death camp record the scar on human history that was the Holocaust.

The original writing by the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Philip Levine introduces and complements this powerful book of photographs. In heartfelt prose, Levine reflects on a single image—that of an old woman sitting on a windowsill. "The hand itself is closed firmly on a white handkerchief, a large, strong hand only slightly spotted by dirt or age, with thick powerful veins. If I could open that hand and spread the thick fingers I’m sure I could follow her lifeline back to the crucial moment of loss, if there were one." While revealing the essence of Miller’s vision, Levine finds new understandings of himself in relation to history.

Richard Copeland Miller traveled and photographed throughout Europe for 15 years. He and his wife, Katherine, were so moved by the conditions they witnessed in Eastern Europe that they founded the LIFT Foundation, dedicated to helping disadvantaged and orphaned children in Romania. Miller was working on a series of photographs in Vietnam and Barbados when he died suddenly and prematurely.

Richard Copeland Miller traveled and photographed throughout Europe for the past fifteen years. He lived with his wife, Katherine, in Auburn, California, where they founded the LIFT Foundation, dedicated to helping disadvantaged and orphaned children in Romania. He was working on a series of photographs in Vietnam and in Barbados when he died suddenly and prematurely.