Miller, Kit 1956(?)-

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MILLER, Kit 1956(?)-

PERSONAL: Born c. 1956, in Nevada; married; two children.

ADDRESSES: Home—Carson City, NV. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Great Basin Publishing, 6185 Franktown Rd., Carson City, NV 89704.

CAREER: Photographer, writer, and producer. Photographs have been exhibited and published in periodicals, including New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Native People's Magazine.

WRITINGS:

Inside the Glitter: Lives of Casino Workers, Great Basin Publishing (Carson City, NV), 2000.

SIDELIGHTS: An experienced and highly regarded photographer, Kit Miller has covered the street children of Brazil and other stories around the world, publishing her work in such periodicals as the New York Times and the Washington Post. But in her home state of Nevada, she found a story that was not getting much attention and decided to address it. Miller believes a shift is happening in labor migration, from the traditional farms and factories, to the glitzy gambling capitals of Las Vegas and Reno. Inside the Glitter: Lives of Casino Workers brings out the stories of the maids and mechanics, the waiters and bartenders, and the other service workers who keep these towns running while remaining essentially invisible to the tourists and gamblers. "Miller's subjects are never made into icons, however, symbols of troubling social problems rather than fully-fleshed human beings," wrote Annelise Orleck in the Women's Review of Books.

Each of the subjects gets an on-the-job photo and one off-duty photo, as well as a personal profile. Their stories are compelling and often entertaining. There is the "serving wench" at the Excalibur who misses the old days when organized crime ran the city, and she could make $300 a night in tips. There is the Vietnamese refugee who arrived in Reno penniless and a year later is dealing blackjack at the Comstock casino. And there are surprises, like the bellman who has discovered eighteen plant species in his spare time as an amateur botanist. In an interview Holt Uncensored, Miller said she'd been "chasing the exotic" in places like Brazil. "Then I came back to Nevada and found a not-so-different 'other' in my back yard—a huge population that's rarely been seen or acknowledged." Or as some of the workers themselves told her, "Geez, it's about time someone talked to us."