Detroit gives a photographer plenty to look at. The harder trick is deciding what deserves a second look.
For Montez Miller, photography can begin in that fraction of a second, when an ordinary face, gesture or corner of the city suddenly insists on becoming an image. Her camera turns looking into lingering, pulling a passing moment out of Detroit’s visual rush and asking us to stay with it.
Miller’s photographs are one way of reading the city: not simply as architecture and geography, but as people, posture, light and accumulated memory.
Photographing for the Detroit Tigers, the Detroit Pistons, Detroit Wayne Joint Building Authority, Tell Us Detroit and other high-profile and community events in the metro region, she is seemingly everywhere,
at once, camera to her eye, her famous grin peeking out just below.
And the wild thing is, she never set out to be a photographer, and only came into it in relatively recent years.
Aretha Franklin and the opportunity of a lifetime
“It’s a very interesting story,” she said. “I worked in media and television all of my life. My life has been devoted to Black entertainment, television, sports. My first career, I worked for BET, and I was a producer of ‘Video Soul’ with Donnie Simpson. I’ve done specials on Michael Jackson, Prince, Janet Jackson, the whole nine yards. But my journey in photography started 12 years ago.
“Ms. Aretha Franklin was at the White House for a PBS special called ‘The Women of Soul.’ My friend played the tambourine for Ms. Franklin. They were there in Washington, D.C., filming. I thought the special was airing that day, so I started searching the cable dial, calling the cable company, because I knew it was on television, but I couldn’t find it. Somehow, I ended up on the White House website, and it was streaming while they were in production.”
Miller shared all over social media that the White House was streaming a live Aretha Franklin performance.
“A couple of days went by,” said Miller, “and (Franklin’s) publicist reached out to me. She said, ‘I just got off the phone with Ms. Franklin. She loves you, and she’s going to be reaching out to you.’ She said, ‘You got me in trouble!’ I said, ‘What did I do?’ She said, ‘Ms. Frankin wanted to know how Montez Miller knew she was at the White House and her own publicist didn’t know!’ So Ms. Franklin told her, ‘You need to get to know Montez; she’s in the know – she was an executive at BET.’”
A few days later, Franklin popped up on Miller’s Facebook profile. They began a conversation through back-and-forth comments.
“She would say something, I would say something,” said Miller. “I can’t believe that this is really her – this can’t be Ms. Franklin – not on my page! I started praying, ‘Lord, please don’t let anybody see this thread,’ because she thinks that it’s a private conversation between the two of us. She didn’t know other people, such as her friends and my friends on social media, could have joined in. She even put her phone number out there. I deleted it, but she asked me to do her social media. So, I immediately went out and bought a point-and-shoot camera, because that was sufficient back then for social media.
“But then, the follow-up conversation was, ‘The pictures you take, I want you to send them to a trade magazine.’ Huh? I didn’t even own a camera! I’d never taken a professional picture before in my life; I did video. But I went to a local camera store in Birmingham, and that’s where I purchased my first camera. I told the salesperson I had the opportunity of a lifetime on the table; it could make or break me if the picture didn’t come out right. I stayed in the store, talking to him about the functions of a camera and how the camera operates, and I took to YouTube.”
Three weeks later, Miller and her camera accompanied Franklin to Harvard University, where she photographed Franklin receiving an honorary doctorate.
“Photography is something that I didn’t see for myself,” said Miller. “Ms. Franklin allowed me to tap into a part of myself that I didn’t even know I had in me. I was so engaged and happy with just doing video, but when she gave me the opportunity to do photography, I just stepped out on faith. During that time we were at Harvard, former President Bush was there. First Lady Bush was there. Former Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg was there. And those are some of the first images that I was able to capture. So, when it comes to my photography, every picture I take, I owe to Ms. Aretha Franklin, because she tapped into a gift that I never knew I had.”
The last 12 years, she said, have been “a dream.”
“I truly love photography,” she said. “Photography is storytelling. It’s not that you’re trying to take a picture of a person or a subject that looks good; I find myself trying to capture a moment that makes you feel something. I try to take a picture in a manner that makes you feel as if you were actually there. I love action photography, because you never know what is going to happen next, and it’s like a rush. It’s that fraction of a second that you have an opportunity to capture that moment.”
From Highland Park to BET
Miller, a born-and-raised Detroiter, grew up with five brothers – “I believe that’s why I’m obsessed with sports,” she cracked – in the Highland Park neighborhood.
“My father owned a trucking company,” she said, “and he had 13 semis. He was the first minority to haul tractors for Ford Motor Company, over 48 states. So, when I was a little girl, I always thought that I would work for the family business, so I prepared myself to be a secretary. During school, I put a lot of emphasis on shorthand and typing and different things like that. But also, in high school, I took a radio workshop class, not knowing that I was going to be working in that industry.
“McDonald’s was my first job. I worked for Dad, but it didn’t work out well because he didn’t like the fact that the truck drivers used to flirt with his daughter.”
She soon found work as a dance coordinator on “The Scene,” Detroit’s popular dance show of the time.
“It was at that time the television bug started to bite,” she recalled. “After ‘The Scene,’ I worked with Brady Keys, a former Pittsburgh Steeler who had his own media company. He did really well for himself here in Detroit. I worked with him, producing some of his commercials, then from there, I was an assistant to the Electrifyin’ Mojo during his WJLB days. I served as his assistant for years, and after getting an extensive amount of hands-on training, I decided to attend Specs Howard School of Broadcast. I became certified in radio and television. After that, I landed a job with Barden Cablevision, then I went on to BET.”
‘Montez was just as cool as they come’
Longtime “Video Soul” host Donnie Simpson called Miller “the best.”
“From day one, Montez was just as cool as they come,” Simpson told the Free Press. “So calm under fire, always welcoming, always accommodating. Whatever you needed – she was that kind of person for me. You wanted to be in her hands because you knew she had your back, and that’s still true to this day. You know she has your best interest at heart.”
Simpson praised Miller’s disposition and work ethic.
“She’s so consistent,” he said. “I love people like that. People who smile all the time! I’m a smile collector; I feel like that’s what God put me here for, to collect smiles. Montez, there’s a light that shines. To me, it speaks of an inner light, a joy that’s inside her that shines outwardly through her smile. She’s a Detroit homegirl and, you know, Detroit just produces a certain type of person to me. I’m really grateful to have had a sister that was so compassionate and understanding, and she had it in spades. I’m really grateful for the Lord putting us together like He did.”
Gregg Diggs worked in lockstep with Miller at BET in the mid-to-late 1990s, where he programmed videos for the network opposite Miller’s producer role on “Video Soul.”
“Montez is my girl,” Diggs said. “I love her. The thing I really respect most about her is that she is a true professional. She’s very serious about what she’s doing. We had a lot of debates about her show and things, but they were friendly debates. She’s also very creative. She just has a great eye for detail. She was a joy to work with and she’s just an extraordinary person. She branched off and is doing photography, and that didn’t even surprise me. It made me respect her even more, because I knew what she did at BET and was extremely impressed with the work ethic there, but to see how she’s morphed into this incredible photographer – that’s just icing on the cake.”
A bond built on trust
Diggs fondly recalled Franklin’s love of Miller.
“Montez invited me to this special reception for Aretha Franklin in Washington, D.C.,” he said. “I had never met Aretha before. We walked into this ballroom, maybe about 100 people at the time, and (Franklin) was escorted by Rev. Jesse Jackson. She was walking down this aisle, all these people were speaking to her, and she was smiling. Then, she saw Montez and her face lit up – like nobody else existed in the room. That just blew me away. All the people in the room, Montez was the person that she singled out. That said a lot about how much Aretha Franklin respected her. You could tell that she loved her.
“When I finally met her, Montez introduced me, and I felt like royalty because she treated me like royalty – because I was with Montez.”
Franklin’s niece, Sabrina Owens, remembered Miller’s tireless dedication during the Queen of Soul’s funeral.
“We know that was a very big day,” Owens said. “It was a nine-hour day. I planned all that with a few teams. Just always being able to count on (Miller) to come and do her work is just magnificent to me. My aunt did not trust a lot of people. Montez was definitely in her inner circle. If she did not trust you, you were not going to do work for her, and she trusted Montez to do exactly what she wanted her to do. I’m impressed with the kind of work that she delivers and the way that she delivers it.
“And her spirit. I know we always talk about her work, but she is a very spiritual person. The way she conducts herself and the fact that she’s always so reliable, dependable, has a great demeanor about her – it makes you want to work with her, makes you want to call her back, because you know the work is going to be good, but she is just a good person overall.”
Greg Dunmore, a close friend and longtime companion to Franklin, talked of the icon’s love for her.
“With Montez and Aretha, there was a level of R-E-S-P-E-C-T,” he said. “When we talk about show business, she really does exemplify the business end that makes the stars shine. She’s not a performer herself, but she is certainly an artist, and she really does symbolize a level of excellence offstage and in the business of show. Aretha knew that, and I think that she was very blessed to have a Montez, as Montez was blessed to have an Aretha.”
Kevin “MPECKABLE” Peck has served for decades as manager of the R&B vocal group Dru Hill, which celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2027. He spoke about Miller’s “good heart.”
“Thirty years ago,” he said, “Montez was getting our records played on the radio. Every time we came out, anytime we had a new release, she got us on the air. Detroit still, to this day, is one of our biggest markets.”
A city, a camera, and stories still unfolding
While Miller’s journey to the top has been a big adventure, she’s not done breaking ground yet. This summer, she became the first person to stage a professional photo shoot on the newly completed Gordie Howe International Bridge.
“Detroit has given me so many stories to tell,” she said. “And I’ve been fortunate enough to have a camera to document the moment. Most recently for me, being able to capture the first Black woman as mayor of Detroit was outstanding. That creates a story that will last longer than I will be able to. Detroit is home for me. The city has some incredible people, incredible sports, incredible music, incredible history, and I’ve been fortunate enough to document many different sides of Detroit.
“What I love most is that Detroit is always creating another story. As a photographer, it gives me an opportunity to keep documenting the people and moments that really make the city special. Television actually prepared me for photography. Some of the things I was able to capture in video, now I’m able to capture in still photography.
“My career has been nothing short of a journey of faith, opportunities, relationships, and just being able to say yes.”
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Montez Miller never planned to be a photographer. Then Aretha called
