Jerry McMillan Art

Born in 1936 in Oklahoma, photographer Jerry McMillan came to Los Angeles in the sixties with buddies Ed Ruscha and Joe Goode. Attending Chouinard Art Institute from 1958-1960, he was a major contributor to the wry and witty humor central to the developing art community of Los Angeles in the early sixties. Known for his work that often combines elements of photography and sculpture, he has been collected and exhibited widely and was the first photographer to have one one-person exhibition at the Pasadena Art Museum in 1966. Known for his portraits of artists and friends of the era, McMillan was the photographer for the controversial "War Babies" poster for the 1961 exhibition of the same name curated by Henry Hopkins. "From the moment McMillan took up photography at Chouinard he was roommate Ruscha’s in-house photog and Ed was his readiest model. McMillan says that it was usually Ruscha’s idea to shoot him in a bunny suit, on horseback with Goode, throwing bodybuilder poses, or in bed with two (or, as the contact sheet indicates, three) girls; but it was clearly McMillan’s own eye that framed Ruscha’s gentle good looks just right, subtly infusing these deadpan early-‘60s setups and later-‘60s documents with Hollywood glamour." -- Peter Frank, LA Weekly