Member Spotlight: Emma Rose Milligan
CMC Member Spotlight Q&A: Emma
March 2024
My name is Emma Rose Milligan, and I’m a NYC based artist + photographer. I went to SVA for both my BFA and MFA degrees, and use my fine art background to inform my commercial practice. As a working photographer, my career path has included events, weddings, portraits, content creation, food, and fine art reproduction, but now I mostly focus on product + lifestyle. I’ve also recently pivoted to shooting more editorial work, and since have contributed to Barron’s, WSJ, The NY Times, and a silly pigeon photo in NY Mag’s 2023 “Reasons to Love New York” issue. My personal artistic practice focuses on stories about youth culture, women empowerment, and understanding looking vs. being looked at. At the end of the day, I just love making and taking photographs, no matter the subject. A fun fact is that I have a birthmark that looks like a hickey, and I will likely forget to tell you - but you will definitely see it!
Take us back. How did you begin your photography career? What were some challenges that you overcame in your beginning days.
As early as I can remember, I would steal my Mom’s film point + shoot to take photographs of my house, my dog, and my neighborhood. Being an art kid, I initially thought my career would lead into fashion, but when I was 15, I went on a day trip to visit a nearby trade school. I saw my first darkroom, made my first photogram, and was immediately hooked, knowing that this was my future. The great overlap of fashion and photography is that they’re both about looking and representation, so it’s always been funny to me how the same interests kept within the same path.
The biggest challenge in getting started is having faith in yourself, and maintaining determination in your pursuit. It’s overcoming the voices of doubt and “reason,” whether it’s internal or external, and to keep moving your goal posts on whatever it is you want to accomplish. I could write a long list of everything that “went wrong” or theoretically could have stopped me on my path, but I think it’s more important to focus on how you face them. As Beckett said, “Ever tried. Ever failed. No Matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Whatever “it” is you want to accomplish will happen if you want it enough, but you have to accept it will never happen in the way you think it will.
What has been one of your biggest career accomplishments so far as a photographer?
The fact that I get to make photographs everyday, for work and for fun. I have a long to-do list of everything I plan to accomplish in my life and career, but at its baseline, just getting “here” is the best of all. Time moves too quickly, so I’m just trying to capture it as quickly as I can.
Share 3-5 images from a series or project that’s special to you. Please give us some context about the photos or series.
These are some selects from a working series called “For The Birds,” meant to act as a visual love letter to the sovereign bird of New York City. Pigeons are quirky, funny, have boisterous personalities, and perfectly encapsulate New York. I like to imagine how NYC looks like through their POV, and wonder if they see us as equally pesky as many New Yorkers think of them. What does a pigeon’s world look like? As a phrase, “For The Birds” generally means “worthless, trivial, not to be taken seriously, and no good.” I think it’s quite the opposite for the mighty bird, and in h’ommage of their tenacious spirit, love to take their photograph.
