Peter Miller's becoming an original photogravure print artist was, he says, a gradual development. "It didn't come to me in a flash. I taught myself through trial and error, mostly error," he said. "There is no limit to it, and I am still learning. I etch and print the plates myself, as the entire process is essential to learning how to see. I believe I am the only one in Japan doing what I do on a consistent basis." He began his particular art work as a full-time occupation a dozen years ago because "it seized hold of me and I couldn't do anything else."
His early life gave no indication of the way he would shoot off in his unusual direction. Peter was born in Pennsylvania in 1945, and grew up regarding Pittsburgh as his hometown. Lucid and analytical, at Columbia University he took his first degree in English literature and sociology, and eventually earned his Ph.D. in sociology at Berkeley. He worked as a consultant at Stanford Research Institute. A chance assignment brought him to Japan in 1977. He met and married his wife on his first trip, and moved here permanently in 1981. His son is now in college in Oregon.
In his consulting work Peter was drawn into the high technology of ultraviolet light sources for the commercial printing industry. He was sufficiently interested to follow on with his own research. He explained: "The late 19th century was the heyday of the process called photogravure, that was developed in France and England. It fell into disuse because it was time-consuming and technically difficult to do. As a fine-art process, it came to be associated with an antiquated school of graphic arts. However, it had a revival in Europe and America in the 1970s."