Miles R. Everitt was a Los Angeles photographer of African-American nude models primarily from the late 1950s into the early 1990s. He learned to develop his own film and slides to avoid the censorship and confiscation of works by film developers. Everitt has been credited with developing the technique of shooting African-Americans using a black background, however this remains unsubstantiated.

He was born in 1912 in Oregon to Mrs. Louie Everitt, née Tillock and Mr. Fredrick Everitt. The family relocated to Los Angeles between 1920 and 1930. In the early 1930s Everitt came to know members of the f/64 Group. According to 1940 United States census records, he resided with his parents in the family home at 5735 Alviso Avenue in Los Angeles. The census record described his occupation as "telephone equipment installation" and that he had completed his third year of college. A second entry in the census listed a Miles Everitt with the same birth year and state, living in boarding house in San Diego, California. In the summer of 1941, he was selected for service as a warrant officer and appears to have served in the Army Airways Communication Service (AACS) through the duration of World War II.

Photographs in the collection document his travel to Iceland and Europe during the period 1943-1945; later photographs document his attendance at a reunion of the AACS alumni. After the war he primarily photographed African-American male models. A small number of buyers, photographers, and publishers knew of his works. The Jack Fritscher and Patricia Morrisroe biographies of Robert Mapplethorpe mention the meeting of Everitt and Robert Mapplethorpe in Los Angeles during the late 1970s or early 1980s. Everitt died of heart disease in April 1994.

“History.” Air Force Communicators & Air Traffic Controllers Association. http://afcommatc.org/history.html (December 10, 2013).

Fritscher, Jack. Mapplethorpe: Assault with a Deadly Camera : a Pop Culture Memoir, an Outlaw Reminiscence. Mamaroneck, NY: Hastings House, 1994.

Morrisroe, Patricia. Mapplethorpe: A Biography. New York: Random House, 1995.

Walker, Mitch. “The Photography of Miles Everett.” 3D News: from the stero club of Southern California, November 1994.