Antony Penrose: Lee Miller Photographs
Untitled [Woman with hand on head], Paris, France, 1931 © 2023 Lee Miller Archives, England. All rights reserved. www.leemiller.co.uk
Written by: Madeline Lerner
From painter to model to fashion photographer then war photographer, Lee Miller’s career is not a simple one to pin down. In Lee Miller Photographs, Antony Penrose's magnificent retrospective of Miller's career delivers a comprehensive and intimate portrayal of her remarkable oeuvre to the world. Through his diligent research and personal familial relationship, Penrose provides insight into the intertwining of Miller’s photography and her personal life, giving us an opportunity to appreciate— as Kate Winslet writes in the introduction— the “bold, decisive, and honest” woman that Lee Miller was.
Auxiliary Territorial Service Searchlight Operators, North London, England, c. 1943 © 2023 Lee Miller Archives, England. All rights reserved. www.leemiller.co.uk
Discovered on the streets of New York, Lee Miller stepped into the photography world in front of the camera. Modeling for Vogue and Vanity Fair, she was exposed to some of the best photographers in the world. The connections she made with these photographers turned her adolescent interest in photography into her full time career, notably launched after being introduced to Man Ray. After a move to Paris to work with Ray, her photographic works were soon marked by a surrealist eye. She captured absurd scenes in everyday life that finds its subjects in unlikely and unconventional positions, verging away from rationality. For a time, she operated her own studio in New York, taking portraits that took influence from her fashion model background, surrealist eye, and her friendship with Man Ray.
Untitled [Man and tar], Paris, France, c. 1930 © 2023 Lee Miller Archives, England. All rights reserved. www.leemiller.co.uk
After marrying Egyptian businessman Aziz Eloui Bey, Miller shut down her studio and moved to Cairo, returning to her avant-garde style and more casual portraiture. We see both explorations of light and shadow in the pyramids of Giza as well as more playful shots of her friends. Her travels with friends throughout Europe during this period also gives us the first sense of the journalistic approach she takes during the nearing Second World War.
Gypsies, Porumbacu de Jos, Sibiu, Romania, 1938 © 2023 Lee Miller Archives, England. All rights reserved. www.leemiller.co.uk
She returned to the fashion world while working with British Vogue in London at the beginning of the war. As Penrose notes, since the studios were often closed due to bombings in London, Miller ventured outside, where “she made it look effortless, with the occasional surreal touch that now seemed more of a normality as the nightmare backgrounds of shattered buildings became commonplace.” Particularly arresting are her photos of the people and destruction of the Blitz. She managed to make a grand piano buried beneath rubble look desperately alive; she found the spotlight on a man hiding in the Underground during the bombing.
Top: "Piano by Broadwood," London, England, 1940
Bottom: Boot and ammunition, St Malo, France, 1944
© 2023 Lee Miller Archives, England. All rights reserved. www.leemiller.co.uk
She created perhaps her most famous works during WWII, which she initially gained access to through her Vogue assignment centered on women involved in the war. The images from these series hold a unique significance, not just for spotlighting women's contributions during the war but also for the poignant touch of her documentary eye. Later in the war, her work focused more exclusively on violence and combat. Her images of combat and its aftermath are excruciatingly gripping, and are some of the greatest and most important documentative photography to emerge from the War. The War, as Penrose notes, altered Miller’s desire or abilities to return to surrealism. While she embraced varied styles and subjects throughout her career, Miller excelled in every phase she explored. In Lee Miller Photographs, Penrose offers a remarkable retrospective of her career. It is brimming with intimate details that could only come from a close family connection, and delves into every stage of Miller's career with thorough examination and profound admiration.
"Limbering up for the big push," Vogue, London, England, 1942 © 2023 Lee Miller Archives, England. All rights reserved. www.leemiller.co.uk
