‘He should get his flowers.’ Milton Perry is battling terminal cancer, but people are making sure he knows the impact he’s had

If you were a model or actor looking to jumpstart your career in Philadelphia in the ‘80s and ‘90s, there was one person you would go to. But he was not an agent or a casting director; Milton Perry was a photographer.

Perry’s signature headshots helped numerous people get their start in some of the most difficult industries. He was known for making anyone feel comfortable in front of the camera, and producing headshots that were sure to put a person in their best possible light.

“It wasn’t about fame and fortune for Milton. He had a particular eye,” said Jim Mital, a model and actor who lived in Philly in the ‘80s and ‘90s and was friends with Perry. “He photographed me like no one else ever did.”

“Milton was the go-to photographer for anybody,” said Sioux Robbins, a Mount Airy model and singer who worked with Perry from the ‘80s through the 2000s. “He was the man.”

Perry is now 79 years old. He retired from his photography business several years ago, but still admires the artistry of the medium, often reposting other photographers’ work on his Facebook page. Those who know Perry said that he is modest when talking about his own work though, quick to point toward others he saw as having more talent.

“I just had a natural affinity to capture [people], to make people look good, to capture beauty,” Perry said. “I see the flaws, but I eliminate the flaws when I shoot in my mind and project [that] through the camera. ... I don’t want to make it sound like it’s some kind of mysterious thing, but that was the process.”

Like many others his age, he uses Facebook to reconnect with and update all of the people he befriended over the years through his work or the many he would chat up on the streets of Philadelphia.

Earlier this year, Perry posted that he had been diagnosed with cancer. “[It’s] an effort to even post these beautiful images shot by amazing gifted photographers from around the world,” he wrote about how the illness weakened his body that was once chiseled by weights and martial arts.

A few weeks ago, he posted another update to his health — the cancer in his stomach had spread throughout his body. “Yes, I’ve been diagnosed with terminal cancer. [It’s] been nice reading other friend’s post on my newsfeed, but my time is limited,” he wrote.

That post received over 600 comments, full of well wishes and gratitude to Perry for his friendship and his work. People started posting their old headshots that he took, sharing how they were instrumental to their careers in modeling and entertainment. “I wouldn’t have had the career I had without Milton Perry,” Robbins wrote alongside one of her headshots.

Robbins said that she met Perry while walking down the street one day. He just struck up a conversation with her as a total stranger, which was a fairly common thing for him to do.

“He was a man about town. Milton was a very striking figure. He was very buff. ... And he had these long dreads and he is a good-looking guy,” she said. Robbins appreciated how comfortable he made her when they took her headshots. That charisma was evident throughout Perry’s life, not just his work. “He would walk around town and just talk to people. He was just so personable and easy to talk to and to approach.”

“[I] always looked up to him. He’s pretty much a visionary,” said Terri Neifert from Bethlehem, Pa., who first worked with Perry when she was 18 and just getting started as a model. “He just had a calming spirit.”

“He should get his flowers while he’s here,” she said.

Perry believes that his own career began somewhat as an accident. He lived in Philadelphia since he was 5-years-old, spending the majority of it living in the Callowhill neighborhood.

He didn’t begin working as a photographer until his mid-30s. Until that point, Perry had been interested in all sorts of creative expressions, like martial arts, but hadn’t found something he loved enough to commit to becoming exceptional at. But that changed once he gifted his now ex-wife a camera, and she wasn’t as taken by it as he was.

“I just picked up the camera and just got hooked on it,” he said.

It was a struggle for Perry to get established, but business picked up once a friend at an advertising agency began sending fashion shoots his way. Perry also got a great deal on a huge studio apartment on Callowhill Street on the ground floor of a former factory building. It didn’t have a kitchen or windows, but it was perfect for photography.

“We had to always use electric light to see in there. Otherwise, it was just pitch black, couldn’t see anything,” Perry said. “So it was ideal for someone just shooting studio work.”

He admitted that while portraits were what he was known for in Philly, his real passion was fashion photography, working for magazines like W and Essence. In particular, at Essence, he specialized in capturing Black women who had certain notoriety in their fields, but weren’t necessarily models or experienced in front of the camera.

Today, Perry is most focused on his comfort and getting outdoors when he can. He doesn’t shoot photos anymore, but has taken a new interest in architectural photography.

He’s seen the messages and anecdotes that people are sharing about him on Facebook, and appreciates the presence he had in people’s lives now more than he did at the time.

“Just to see, people posting images I shot of ‘em in the past ... yeah, it’s nice, you know?” he said.

“[I] always greeted people like they were my friends. Like I wanted to be greeted, you know? And I wasn’t greeting them to elevate myself over anyone. I wasn’t condescending or nothing like that. And I think people admired that and respected that about me,” he continued.

“I was just being me. It wasn’t no act or anything. I was just being me.”