Lee Miller: Surrealist Experiments and War Photography
Lee Miller (1907-1977) was an American photographer with a varied career that lasted 16 years, beginning in Paris in 1929 alongside her partner Man Ray. Their joint efforts, such as the 1930 piece Cuello, raise questions about authorship. In 1930, she established her own studio and featured in Jean Cocteau's film Le Sang d'un Poète. From 1932, Miller created surrealist portraits in New York and ventured to Egypt in 1934, producing works like Portrait of Space (1937). During World War II, she contributed to British Vogue and shifted to war photography in 1942, documenting significant events like the Normandy landings and concentration camps in 1945. Following the war, she returned to England and stopped photographing due to mental exhaustion.
Key facts
- Lee Miller lived from 1907 to 1977, born in the United States and died in the United Kingdom.
- She produced a diverse photographic oeuvre in only sixteen years, including surrealist works, travel photos, portraits, and war documentation.
- In Paris in 1929, she collaborated with Man Ray, creating images using techniques like solarization and tight framing.
- Her image Cuello (1930) originated from a discarded Man Ray negative that she rescued, cropped, and printed.
- In 1930, she opened a commercial studio and acted in Jean Cocteau's film Le Sang d'un Poète.
- She traveled to Egypt in 1934 with her first husband, Aziz Eloui Bey, creating Portrait of Space (1937), which inspired René Magritte's The Kiss.
- In 1942, she became a war photographer, one of only five women photojournalists working for the US in Europe.
- In 1945, she and David Scherman photographed the liberated concentration camps of Buchenwald and Dachau and posed in Hitler's Munich apartment.
Entities
Artists
- Lee Miller
- Man Ray
- Jean Cocteau
- Aziz Eloui Bey
- René Magritte
- Roland Penrose
- David Scherman
- Eva Braun
- Adolf Hitler
- Edward Steichen
- Arnold Genthe
- Nickolas Muray
- George Hoyningen-Huene
- Virgil Thomson
- Gertrude Stein
- David E. Scherman
- Anthony Penrose
Institutions
- National Portrait Gallery
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Vogue
- Life
- Lee Miller Archives
- Condé Nast
- Condé Nast Publications
- Le Cordon Bleu
Locations
- United States
- United Kingdom
- Paris
- France
- New York
- Egypt
- Bucharest
- Romania
- Athens
- Greece
- London
- Normandy
- Saint-Malo
- Germany
- Austria
- Leipzig
- Buchenwald
- Dachau
- Munich
- Vienna
- Siwa Oasis
- Essex
- England