Noticing xcvii - Lee Miller, photographer

Picasso, The Weeping Woman (1937)

I am proofreading a book about one of Picasso's many lovers, Dora Maar (1907–1997), daughter of a Croatian architect and a French woman. Dora was herself a photographer and ran in the Surrealist circles, but when she liaised with Picasso in 1935, he urged(/forced) her to abandon photography, which he considered merely a "tech- nique," not an artform in its own right. As we all know, Picasso was not a very nice man when it came to his treatment of women, and Dora suffered: today she is perhaps best remembered as his "weeping woman."

The book is based on an address book of Dora's that the book's author stumbled onto fortuitously, via eBay. It lists many prominent artists and intellectuals of the day—including writer and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, photographer Brassaï, psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, writer André Breton, Russian painter Nicolas de Staël— and we learn about those relationships and how they evolved (or died).

Man Ray, solarized portrait
of Lee Miller (ca. 1930)

One of the people mentioned in the book is the American photographer Lee Miller (1907–1977). Before moving to Paris in 1929, she had briefly been a Vogue model; in Paris, she became associated (in various ways, both professional and personal) with Surrealist photographer Man Ray. Together, they hit on the technique of solarization.

Back in New York in 1932, Miller became a successful commercial photographer: studio portraits, fashion. She married a wealthy Egyptian businessman, moved to Cairo, and more or less gave up photography—but then (a theme of the times in that artistic circle, I'm learning) she grew bored with that life and moved back to Paris in 1937, where she met Surrealist artist Roland Penrose, whom she subsequently married. At the outbreak of WWII she launched a new career: as a photojournalist and war correspondent, for Vogue. She was at Buchenwald and Auschwitz shortly after they were liberated.

It's those photos, of wartime, that I'm especially interested in. But before I show you a few, here is a brief video introduction to her via Albertina Museum, Vienna:

Okay, photos (as always, click on the image to view larger on black):

Portrait of Space, 1937

SS Guard in Canal, Dachau, 1945

Irmgard Seefried, Opera singer singing an aria from
"Madame Butterfly," 1945

Fire Masks, 1941

Children celebrating the liberation of Paris, France, 1944

Henry Moore, Holburn Underground Station,
London, England, n.d.

Clark Gable, US Air Force Base, England, 1943

FFI Worker, Paris, France, 1944

One Night of Love, 1940

Evacuation hospital operating theater, France, 1944

Suicides in Town Hall, Leipzig, 1945

Fortunately, Lee Miller's significance in the history of photography, and of the documentation of WWII, has been recognized (in large part due to the efforts of her son, Antony Penrose), and there are many articles out there about her diverse and creative life. She's a fascinating character. I'm glad I know a little more about her now.