From health care to camera lenses, Camosun College alumnus Lee Milliken has been chosen as part of Team Canada in the World Photographic Cup held in Quito, Ecuador. Milliken has gained the attention of judges with his photograph that portrays the frenzy of visitors trying to capture a glimpse of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre.
After quitting this job at Broadmead Care Society, Milliken started taking photography seriously, enrolling at Camosun in 2011 to begin a new career path better suited to his passions.
“I just went all in,” says Milliken. “I was really fortunate to essentially meet the right people at the right time. Jesse [Hlady], who I took courses with at Camosun, we kind of hit it off and just became really good friends. And so he offered me a chance to kind of work with him out of his studio and that’s what I did.”
After graduating in 2013, Milliken and his wife Ria started a business in 2018. The company, Spartan Media, found success early, keeping the two busy and without the possibility for vacation. However, in 2023, with some time available, the couple took the opportunity to travel, accidentally leading them to Paris.
“[The photo] was taken in the summer of 2023, and that was my and my wife’s first vacation in quite a few years,” says Milliken. “My wife is Greek, so we went back to visit her family in Greece. And so the summer of 2023, that was the year that Greece had a bunch of floods. Our connecting flight was in Paris. So her family said, ‘If you have a chance to leave now, you should because otherwise, the roads will get closed.’ So we actually just kind of went straight to the airport and booked an early flight to Paris.”
The unscripted trip to Paris would ultimately lead him to tour the Louvre museum.
“We get to the Mona Lisa, and it’s just one of those things you have to experience. The chaos is just all the people [who] are there to see that one painting,” says Milliken. “And it’s a big room, so I was more focused on the people just because I couldn’t believe it. So I just kind of stood on my tiptoes and held my breath, and I was as still as possible. And then I blended, like, six or seven images to capture that one image.”
After his trip, Milliken started submitting his work, something that he had not done in a while. This led him to join the Professional Photographers of Canada.
“I just started entering competitions, and I did really well. I won quite a few awards last year,” says Milliken. “The biggest one obviously was the World Photographic Cup, making Team Canada. So, essentially, I submitted my favourite images and then, it went through like three rounds of curation with all these judges and then the final selection.”
Milliken says he’s starstruck by some of the people that he’s competing against, feeling honoured to represent his country in a competition of this magnitude.
“There are people that I look up to, like, Tim Wallace,” he says. “He shoots for Lamborghini and Ferrari, and it’s like, holy cow, I’m in the same category as these [photographers]… It’s an extreme honour to represent your country, in anything. I’m just honestly happy to be part of the team.”