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27 January 2024
Lee Miller and the Mermaid (Part 1)
Follow Lee Miller's footsteps through the liberation of Denmark, as written by her granddaughter Ami Bouhassane.
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LEE MILLER
Photographer, Surrealist, War Correspondent, Model & Gourmet Cook
Born: 23 April 1907, Poughkeepsie, New York, USA.
Died: 21 July 1977, Farleys House, Muddles Green, Chiddingly, East Sussex, England.
Lee Miller first entered the world of photography as a high fashion model in 1920’s New York. Working with some of the greatest photographers of the day, such as Edward Steichen, George Hoyningen-Huene and Arnold Genthe, Lee’s modelling career was incredibly successful if short-lived. Deciding she would ‘rather take a picture than be one’, in 1929 she moved to Paris to work with the well-known Surrealist artist and photographer Man Ray.
It wasn’t long until Lee established her own photographic studio in the city, working as a commercial portrait and fashion photographer. Lee’s most enduring body of work from this time is her surrealist images of street scenes and studio experimentation, when she re-discovered the Sabattier Effect, a photographic technique later popularised as ‘Solarisation‘, with Man Ray.
Lee returned to New York in 1932, and, once more, established a successful photographic studio on the other side of the Atlantic, despite the economic depression in the USA. A new adventure presented itself when Lee married the wealthy Egyptian businessman Aziz Eloui Bey, and moved with him to Cairo in Egypt, where she became fascinated by precarious, long-range desert travel. Free from the constraints of harnessing photography to make a living, Lee could now take photos purely for herself.
During a visit to Paris in 1937 she met Roland Penrose, the surrealist artist who was to become her second husband, and travelled with him to Greece and Romania. In 1939 she definitively left Egypt for London shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. She moved in with Roland and, defying orders from the US Embassy to return to America, took a job as a freelance photographer for Vogue.
In 1944 Lee became a correspondent accredited to the US Army, and often teamed up with her friend, the LIFE Magazine photographer David E. Scherman. She followed the US troops overseas after D Day, becoming one of only a few women combat photojournalists to cover the front-line war in Europe. Lee documented the siege of St Malo, the Liberation of Paris, the fighting in Luxembourg and Alsace, the Russian/American link up at Torgau, and the liberation of Buchenwald and Dachau Concentration Camps.
Witnessing many of the major events of the Second World War, Lee was billeted in both Hitler and Eva Braun’s houses in Munich, and photographed Hitler’s house, Wachenfeld at Berchtesgaden, in flames on the eve of Germany’s surrender. Penetrating deep into Eastern Europe, she covered harrowing scenes of children dying in Vienna, peasant life in devastated post-war Hungary and finally the execution of Prime Minister Lazlo Bardossy.
Post-war, Lee continued to contribute to Vogue, covering fashion and celebrity culture, including portraits of renowned artists such as Pablo Picasso and Joan Miró. Following the birth of their son, Antony Penrose, Lee and Roland re-located to Farleys, a farm in the East Sussex countryside. There, Lee moved away from professional photography. In the last two decades of her life, she became a celebrated, award-winning cook, known for her dishes inspired by Surrealism. Lee died at Farleys in 1977.
View Lee Miller's work
23rd April, Birth of Elizabeth [Lee] Miller to parents Theodore and Florence Miller and older brother John, in Poughkeepsie, New York, USA
Lee Miller’s younger brother Erik is born.
The Miller family move to Cedar Hill Farm, Poughkeepsie, New York, where Theodore installs a darkroom.
The Miller family visit Sweden due to Theodore’s Miller’s connections as Superintendent of the Swedish DeLaval company.
Lee stays with Swedish friends now living in New York. Lee is sexually assaulted whilst staying with the family, resulting in an infection of gonorrhea that lasts many years.
Lee attends Govenor Clinton Elementary School, Poughkeepsie, New York. Her behavior becomes increasingly disruptive.
Lee begins taking photographs using a Kodak Brownie her father gave her.
Lee is expelled from school for bad behaviour and sent to Oakwood Friends Schol. Strict Quaker co-educational school.
Leaving school, Lee travels to Paris, France and enrolls at L’École Megyès pour la Technique du Théatre.
Lee reluctantly returns to New York and studies stage and lighting at Vassar College, New York. Lee joins the Art Students league and befriends Tanja Ramm.
Lee meets Condé Nast and appears on the cover of the March Edition of Vogue, drawn by Illustrator, George Lepape.
Edward Steichen’s fashion photography of Lee features in advertisements for Kotex sanitary products, damaging her modelling career but aiding her transition to becoming a professional photographer.
Lee moves to Paris, France and becomes Man Ray’s student, model and partner. Through an accident she re-discovers the Sabatier effect, which Man Ray calls Solarisation.
Asserting her independence from Man Ray, Lee establishes her own studio (12 rue Victor Considérante) and performs in Jean Cocteau’s film ‘Blood of a Poet’.
In her September, her work begins to appear in French Vogue, and she has her first self-portrait published in American Vogue.
She has a part-time job photographing operations for a Paris surgeon.
The American gallerist Julien Levy buys several Lee Miller works on a visit to Man Ray’s studio.
In November, Lee exhibits at Levy’s New York gallery as part of his American Photography Retrospective exhibition.
Lee is commissioned to travel to Britain and photograph at Elstree Studios for 1 July issue of the Bioscope, and photographs sports clothes for June issue of British Vogue.
She exhibits at Group Annuel des Photographes, Galerie de la Pleiade in Paris.
Exhibits at Group Annuel des Photographes, Galerie to la Pleiade, Paris, France.
Lee models in the Man Ray shot advert for Jean Cocteau’s film Le Sang d’un Poète (The Blood of a Poet),
Lee leaves Paris and establishes her commercial studio ‘Lee Miller Studios, Inc. on 8 East 48 Street, New York, USA. Lee’s work is exhibited at the Julien Levy Gallery.
Lee’s commercial studio is a success, and she is commissioned to photograph the cast of Four Saints in Three Acts. Lee also exhibits at Julien Levy Gallery.
Lee is hailed by Vanity Fair magazine as being one of America’s 7 most distinguished photographers. Lee exhibits as part of a group show in Luckey, Platt and Company department store, Poughkeepsie, New York, USA.
19th July, Lee marries Egyptian businessman Aziz Eloui Bey and after honeymooning at Niagra Falls, moves to Cairo, Egypt, abandoning her New York studio.
Lee revives her passion for photography & enjoys creating images for her own pleasure.
Her New York studio photographs continue to be published in magazines such as House & Garden in America.
Bored of Egyptian expat society, Lee travels to visit friends in Paris and meets the British artist Roland Penrose at a Surrealist fancy dress party.
Lee holidays in Cornwall – then the South of France – with Roland and other artists such as Man Ray, Dora Maar, Eileen Agar, Max Ernst and Leonora Carrington. Picasso paints her portrait 6 times. Lee exhibits Surrealist object ‘Le Baiser’ in Objects and Poems Exhibition, London Gallery, England.
Lee’s work is published in London Bulletin. She becomes associated with Egyptian Surrealist group Art et Liberté.
In June, the London Bulletin publishes two Lee Miller images – Portrait of Space and Eileen Agar’s Shadow.
Lee and Roland tour the Balkans together and the trip inspires Roland to write his publication The Road is Wider Than Long.
Roland visits Lee in Asyut, Egypt, travelling to Siwa and other oasis villages Lee documents the Siwan peoples lives with her camera.
2nd June, Lee leaves Aziz Eloui Bey to be with Roland in London, England. They visit their friends in Europe returning to London as Britain enters World War II.
Refusing to return to US, Lee continues volunteeing as photographer for British Vogue. Contributes work to Surrealism Today exhibition at Zwemmer Gallery, London, England.
June, Audrey Withers credits Lee as having ‘borne the whole weight of our studio production through the most difficult period in Brogue’s [British Vogue‘s] history’.
Lilliput in October- Lee’s first published written piece; I Worked with Man Ray
Lee’s images of the London Blitz feature in the propaganda publication Grim Glory:Pictures of Britain under Fire, and are exhibited at MOMA in their Britain at War exhibition.
December, encouraged by Life Photographer David E. Scherman Lee becomes accredited to the US armed forces as an official war correspondent.
She continues to contribute multiple fashion images every month.
Lee continues to contribute significantly to the pages of Vogue, including their pattern book and knitwear book.
Lee’s photojournalism progresses with a feature on US Army nurses in Oxford. She also gathers material for her book Wrens in Camera.
Lee witnesses the Liberation of Paris and Luxembourg, covers fighting in the battle of the Bulge, visits Belgium whilst also being a key figure in re-launching French Vogue. Published in Cadran, LIFE magazine and Illustrated.
From July, Lee is in Europe covering the war and experiences front line combat in St Malo as it is liberated from German occupation.
Lee visits Ardurf and Pening camps, going on to cover the fighting in Alsace. She finds a brief respite from battle at the liberation of Denmark.
WRENS in camera is published, celebrating the contribution to the war effort of the Women in the Navy, illustrated solely by Lee Miller’s photographs.
Travelling with the advancing US Army, Lee stays with the action and is at the liberation of two concentration camps: Buchenwald and Dachau. She is one of the first journalists to enter Dachau and does not hold back from capturing the horror of the camp.
Lee’s invited on a celebrity tour of US & is interviewed by CBS radio about her war coverage. She uses the occasion to reunite with old friends: Man Ray, Julien Levy, Yves Tanguy and Max Ernst & meets artists Dorothea Tanning, Kay Sage, Isamu Noguch, Stella Snead and Muriel Levy.
In December, she photographs the poet Dylan Thomas for Vogue.
The war for Lee is not over. She continues to travel through Romania and Hungary reporting on the devastation she discovers. Roland and Scherman plead with her to return home.
On a Vogue fashion assignment in Switzerland Lee discovers she is pregnant. Back home in London, England Lee and Roland get married and their son Antony is born.
Lee and Roland move to Farleys House in East Sussex. Lee struggles with life in the country and suffers from depression.
Lee is invited by Robert Capa to join Magnum. Writes her first lifestyle article ‘Batchelors Entertaining‘ for British Vogue. Shoots for 10 page holiday feature ‘Vogue’s Eye View of Travelling at Ease’ and ‘In Sicily’.
May 29 – 25 June, Lee exhibits in ‘Hampstead Seen by Artist, Architect and Camera’ at Studio House, Hampstead, London.
Lee continues to shoot fashion for Vogue and enjoys a visit from Picasso at Farleys House.
Lee works freelance for Picture Post magazine contributing to several issues, whilst also still contributing to Vogue (including an illustrated article on ‘Joyce’s Dublin’).
Lee attempts to re-invent herself as a food and hospitality writer with her unpublished manuscript – Sunday Lunch on the Farm.
She writes about an exhibition covering Picasso’s 70th birthday for Vogue.
Lee writes A thirteen meal Christmas for British Vogue, the first of her articles around food and entertaining containing her own recipes.
Lee curates a section of the ICA, London exhibition Wonder and Horror of the Human Head.
In April, Lee writes an article for British Vogue to publicise the ‘Wonder and Horror of the Human Head’ exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), which she also c0-curates.
In July, Lee’s last major feature accompanied by her photographs is published in Vogue, a ‘tongue in cheek’ piece called Working Guests.
She is suffering from what would probably now be diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Lee takes photographs for Roland Penrose’s book ‘Picasso, His Life and Work’.
She turns down a job offer as a ‘Critical Advisor’ for Spam, the Luncheon Meat company.
12th September, Lee’s mother Florence dies.
Lee attends a 3-month Cordon Bleu cooking course in Rue Léon Delhomme, Paris, France, given to her as 50th birthday gift by Roland.
Lee writes an essay for a booklet & organises food for a gala event at an ICA celebration of the Picasso exhibition at the Tate, curated by Roland.
Lee travels to Lebanon and Egypt with an ICA group and stays in Egypt to see Aziz Eloui Bey, rather than continue to Jerusalem.
British Vogue hails Lee’s cooking & hosting skills in the article, A second fame: Good Food, Lee and Roland Penrose by Ninette Lyon. Lee wins a major prize, a trip to Norway, for an Open Sandwich cooking competition.
Lee and Bettina McNulty travel to Norway. Roland is knighted for his contribution to the Arts and Lee becomes Lady Penrose.
Articles about her cookery appear in Studio International and House and Garden.
In October she is featured in a ‘Who’s Who in Vogue 1916-66’ article and a short section of her article on St Malo is republished as part of British Vogue’s Golden Jubilee.
Lee’s cookery is featured in House and Garden magazine and in American Vogue. She begins to write her own cookbook.
She photographs Antoni TÃ pies for Roland Penrose’s biography of the artist.
Lee curates menu of solely white food for special opening dinner of Man Ray, Inventor, Painter, Poet exhibition, opened on 19th December at New York Cultural Center with Fairleigh Dickinson University.
Lee attends Rencontres internationales de la photographie d’Arles in place of Man Ray who was guest of honour.
Lee exhibits in Photographs from the Julien Levy Collection, at the Art Institute of Chicago.
She is diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Roland’s biography on Tapies is published including recent photographs of the artist by Lee.
Exhibits in The History of Fashion, organised by the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, New York, USA
Lee passes away at Farleys House on 21st July.
Follow Lee Miller's footsteps through the liberation of Denmark, as written by her granddaughter Ami Bouhassane.
READ NOW