after Lee Miller's death in 1977, her son Anthony found her archive of negatives in her attic. These images turned out
to be some of the most valuable documents of the war Miller lived through, not only because they displayed her reality in the war, but also because they documented her wilful and quite brilliant personality. Here we look at the Imperial War Museum's third potion of their recent Lee Miller exhibition and consider the role she played as one of the four accredited female documentary photographers of her time.
What we really see from Miller in contrast to amny docmentaers, is her personality through her range of blasted city-scapes, makeshift hospitals, and of course the iconic 'woman in Hitler's Bathtub' image she staged herself, danced the line between truth and fantasy.
to be some of the most valuable documents of the war Miller lived through, not only because they displayed her reality in the war, but also because they documented her wilful and quite brilliant personality. Here we look at the Imperial War Museum's third potion of their recent Lee Miller exhibition and consider the role she played as one of the four accredited female documentary photographers of her time.
What we really see from Miller in contrast to amny docmentaers, is her personality through her range of blasted city-scapes, makeshift hospitals, and of course the iconic 'woman in Hitler's Bathtub' image she staged herself, danced the line between truth and fantasy.
This image depicts a female nurse assisting an army surgeon. Thousands of patients where seen. Fifty survived. Miller's photography, particularly in this exhibition of a 'Woman's War' really captures the burgeoning female empowerment movement in Britain. Many of her earlier images captured the isolation of women at universities where all the male students had been drafted. Or them working in factories, keeping Britain going. Initially when Miller took tot he field of battle for her photojournalism, the extreme contrast to her more comfortable work for Vogue and her fashion photography where quite shocking to her. However, after a while she stopped caring or worrying about disease (she was named a hypochondriac by many) and struck quite an image with her powerful commitment. This image really highlights her role as one of the foremost feminist icons of her decade and ours. The way only the woman is in focus, slightly darker than the rest, emphasising the twisted and uncomfortable impact the war had on woman as well as undercutting the stereotype that woman's position was in the home. The lighting is haunting, powerful, and theatrical, really expressing the drama and surreal nature of the reality that is occurring while also creating a visually memorable and beautiful image. This stays with the viewer and truly makes them feel for the almost entirely concealed face of the woman shown, as if they too cannot completely look at the pain they are witnessing.
One of Millers last few images, this shows a building in Budapest. What is most striking about this image is that, despite Miller's depression, despite all she had been through beyond and during the war, her love and appreciation of aesthetic inquiry still remained. She saw what others fail to see and captured it, bringing back in her influences from her former lover and mentor Man ray during the surrealist movement before the war. We see her personality through her images mores so than most other documentary photographers, meaning that she does not only document the horrible truth of the war and the impact women had in it, but also her own life. She went from being the pampered mistress of man Ray, through the wife of the wealth business man Aziz Alou Bey, and finally to the rough and passionate hero we remember today, described by her friend and colleague David E. Sherman as an 'unmade bed', breaking through the expectations of femininity and truly capturing a woman's war.
Lee Miller’s Photojournalistic career with Vogue lead her to become the first female combat photographer of World War two, living in Hampstead, London at the time. Her fascinating story that lead to her photography makes it all the more telling, particularly as her first interaction with the founder of Vogue came when he saved her from being hit by an oncoming car. Her daring and often quietly provocative images draw attention to her troubled journey and perhaps can offer a delicate indication of her internal mind, seeing perhaps what others did not in the world around her. As a very young girl she was raped by a man suspected to be a family friend. The courageous themes of some of her images begin to reveal more about her character and her difficult childhood that had perhaps lead her to take more risks and assert her individuality. T This photograph was conceptualised by Miller and David E. Scherman. As she is in the image herself, a common occurrence with auteurs capturing their own lives, we get more of an indication of the way she specifically wanted to come across. She is centre frame with her worn looking work boots positioned directly under her. The contrast of their colour on the pale of the bath draws much attention to them as well as her position within the tub. This makes for a very striking image and reinforces the satiric audacity of her actions as though she is taking a very strong stance in society. The stains of the bath mat and its skewed position in relation to the rest of the very symmetrical room highlight the imposition or invasion into the past of a man famed for his brutal rigidity and signposting Miller and Scherman’s capacity for passive protest of the war. She even stated that she “washed the dirt of Dachau in [Hitler’s] tub”, highlighting the statement she was trying to make against a metaphorically exceedingly black hearted individual. We can see Miller’s life through our own history and her own hatred of the violence through conventions and signifiers that the audience can recognise, such as the image of Hitler in the background, and thus we can connect with history through another person’s eyes.