All eight of MIller's books have been self-published through Silver Print Press, his own small publishing house in what he likes to call Colbyville. The quality of those books, in both content and design, set Miller apart in the field of self-publishing. "I've always done it the way a lot of people are doing now," he says, referencing Kickstarter campaigns and other fundraising avenues. "Basically just cutting out the middle man."

While NES' stated goal is to aid New Englanders in New York, Miller says he was told that another goal of the organization is to give New England authors exposure in New York. "Which would be good!" Miller says. "It's hard to sell out of state. People don't take Vermonters very seriously for some reason."

This is not his first honor. Miller was named Vermonter of the Year in 2006, and has racked up a number of awards for his seven previous books of photography. Miller lived in New York City in the 1950s and '60s, working as reporter and photographer for LIFE magazine in its heyday. He left that "very good job" to come and raise his kids in Vermont — and to "ski and hunt, and ski and hunt, and ski and hunt," as he puts it. But Miller has no regrets.

"It's beautiful here, you're surrounded by a lot of beauty," he says. "So I was always happy. I was always broke, but it didn't matter." 

Miller prefers to photograph a "vanishing species" of Vermonter, the salt-of-the-earth types who practice and believe in self-reliance and stay away from busy roads. Gentrification, for Miller, is a personal affront: "These days, creative people in Vermont are living on air," he says.

But newcomers and young people working in agriculture are also featured in A Lifetime of Vermont People, including Pete Johnson of Pete's Greens in Craftsbury, and Shaun Hill of the Hill Farmstead Brewery in Glover.