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Lee Miller's War
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Lee Miller – The Surrealist Combat Photographer
Lee Miller’s path through life as a fashion model, Surrealist muse, and Surrealist photographer who became a successful fashion and portrait photographer were all steps that prepared her for what her wartime buddy Life Magazine photographer David E. Scherman described as ‘her finest hour’. Scherman was referring to her period as a combat photographer from soon after ‘D’ Day in 1944 to the German Surrender in 1945. In effect Lee Miller’s war experience extended beyond the German surrender as she pushed further into Eastern Europe documenting the way human suffering continued despite the arrival of peace, and by the time she returned to England in the winter of 1945 she had endured more than 18 months of extreme hardship, danger and emotional anguish.
Lee Miller’s photography and reportage from this period gives us a unique insight into the war as we see events through eyes and a mind informed by a passion for humanity and justice and a love of Surrealism. There are very few pictures of politicians or top military brass in Lee Miller’s work. She was more concerned with ordinary people who regularly did extraordinary things in their role as infantry soldiers, nurses or civil affairs workers. She was more concerned with the plight of refugees, freed prisoners and civilians for whom the brave new world everyone had fought had instead delivered a continuation of corrupt government and personal suffering. As the sacred value of human rights is at the heart of Surrealism, so it was in the heart of Lee Miller and her view of the world.
Driving that heart was a wellspring of sheer determination. Her friends in Brussels called her the femme bulldozer for the way she took over their apartments for a fashion shoot and single-handed moved all the furniture around. Moving furniture was comparatively easy work compared to her day to day routine of hauling camera cases, lighting equipment, bed roll, supplies, her typewriter, masses of film, flash bulbs and rations. (Link to Lee Miller’s cameras.)
Lee Miller was accredited as a war correspondent by the U.S. Army in 1942. Today it is nearly impossible to imagine how much of an achievement this was, but being an American was an un-expected bonus as the British Army refused to accredit any women War Correspondents. Even with the U.S. forces, as a woman Lee Miller was not allowed to go near fighting, but as always she turned accident to advantage on her second European assignment. She was supposed to cover the workings of the Civil Affaires team in St Malo which was said to have been captured by the U.S 83rd Division. No one had told the German defenders of the old citadel they were supposed to have surrendered and they hung on doggedly to the heavily fortified old citadel. Lee Miller scooped the five-day siege and the subsequent German surrender. Although this earned her a spell under arrest by the U.S. Military Police, it also earned her an unofficial place with the U.S. infantry which she followed across Europe.
People like Scherman and John Phillips (another Life Magazine photographer) who knew her recall her as an irrepressible wit with her New Yorker wisecracks. She would get the best out of whatever circumstances she found herself in – standing in the snow eating stew made from a cow killed by shell fire – looting bombed out liquor stores for more contributions to the incredible cocktail she mixed in her jeep’s jerrycan – always smoking her best cigarettes first – agonising over her despatches yet turning in some of the best writing of the period – never loosing her automatic eye for fashion. They also remember her as being brave. “She was simply the bravest person I ever knew” was Phillips’ recollection. Scherman said, “Lee Miller was never afraid of the evil that men can do”. And it has to be added that despite witnessing some of mankind’s worst acts of inhumanity, she was brave enough to retain her faith in human nature.
The legacy that Lee Miller’s work gives to the world is the reminder that freedom and justice are qualities of boundless value that like fragile plants require constant cultivation. Many of her images remind us of the often unexpected joy and beauty to be found in the world, but she has also given us some lessons in what happens when barbarism and fanatical intolerance are allowed to go unchecked. This is not a new idea. Edmund Burke (1729 – 1797) stated:
For evil to happen,
all that is necessary
is for good men
to do nothing.
Lee Miller left us many examples of both good and evil to help inform our choices. The rest is up to us.
Please note that you may find some of the following photographs disturbing, with particular reference to the images covering the concentration camps.
© Antony Penrose, June 2005. All rights reserved.
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