People Who Matter: Lee Miller

So I’ve decided to start posting a monthly, or perhaps a bi-weekly, post having to do with an iconic person I admire. Some of these people may be musicians, artists, style icons, writers, filmmakers, or even miscellaneous people who can fall into all of those categories, or none of them. They may be people you know about very well, or people you’ve never heard of. The point is these posts will be about people who matter.

This week’s/month’s (I can’t decide which) icon is Lee Miller. Lee Miller happens to be one of my favorite photographers, but unfortunately not many people know her work or who she is. I feel like she’s often been overshadowed by the men in her life, especially Man Ray, whom she worked with during the height of the Surrealist movement. She led an interesting life, not just because of the people she surrounded herself with, but also because of the amazing things she was able to accomplish as an artist and as a woman. She was a beautiful woman with an incredible talent and an intelligence perhaps not often found in women of her era. She was a model, a muse, and an artist.

 

Elizabeth “Lee” Miller was born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1907. Before she became known for her photography, she was known as a stunning model, and she began her modeling in front of her father’s camera. While modeling for her father’s artistic endeavors, she was also taught the technical aspects of photography by him. She was discovered by Vogue‘s founder on the streets of Manhattan in 1927, and soon became a sought-after fashion model. Her fashion modeling career didn’t last very long, as it was ended after a scandalous advertisement for Kotex pads was printed with a picture of her. However, in 1929, she became interested in Surrealism and moved to Paris to seek out Man Ray in order to become his apprentice. She became his assistant, although at first he didn’t wish to take any sort of apprentice, and soon they became lovers. Miller was a muse to Man Ray, and to other Surrealists as well. In 1930, she appeared in Jean Cocteau’s The Blood of a Poet as a living statue. While working with Man Ray, she established her own studio. It is also said that many of the photographs credited to Man Ray during the late 1920s were actually taken by her. Together, the couple perfected the solarization technique, which Miller came across accidentally one day while in the darkroom. During this era, she became friends with several artists and she became known for her portraits of her social circle. And in 1932, she moved back to New York and opened her own studio there.

Self-portrait, 1932

Although she liked to do some commercial and fashion photography, her talent flourished when it came to surrealist images and portraits. Many of her portraits are now considered to be some of the best photographs taken of the subjects, including those of Picasso and Man Ray. She also photographed the likes of Fred Astaire, T.S. Elliot, and Charlie Chaplin.

Charlie Chaplin, c. 1930

In the 1930s, she traveled to Egypt, Greece, and Romania, where she photographed breathtaking landscapes and images of everyday people. Then came WWII, when in 1942, she became a war correspondent for Vogue accredited to the US Army, and it is believed that she might have been one of the only female combat photojournalists covering the war in Europe. Her images of the war are some of the most appealing to me, mainly because they don’t appear like typical war images and they are almost presented as very artistic, which indeed they are. One need not look at too many of the photographs to see that she had an eye for composition and truly understood the horror of war being conveyed in her images. Perhaps her understanding went too deeply, as her son, Antony Penrose (from her second marriage to the artist and art collector, Roland Penrose), has mentioned her growing depression as she aged being somewhat connected to the horrors she witnessed.

David E. Scherman, 1943

Ms. Miller passed away in 1977 from cancer at the age of 70. Her legacy has been kept alive mainly due to the strong efforts of her son, Antony. I recommend searching for her work and much of it can be viewed on the website created by her son: http://www.leemiller.co.uk/. Her son also wrote a biography of her called The Lives of Lee Miller, which I’ve not yet read. I have, however, read Lee Miller: a Life by Carolyn Burke, which I also recommend. Lee Miller’s life and work cannot be forgotten, and I feel as though not enough respect and admiration have been given her, mostly because many people don’t know who she was. Her striking black and white images can pull anyone in, as can her fascinating and adventurous life. When looking at her photographs, one can’t help but feel like one is right there with her, standing in a desert of Egypt, or looking into the eyes of Picasso, experiencing her life.