Surrealist Lee Miller

Image based book on the Surrealist photography of Lee Miller. Essay of approx 7500 words by her son Antony Penrose included and extended captions supplied for 100 images.

Lee Miller (1907-1977) was an American-born Surrealist and war photographer who, through her role as a model for Vogue magazine, became the apprentice of Man Ray in Paris, and later one of the few women war correspondents to cover the Second World War from the frontline. Her comprehensive understanding of art enabled her to photograph vivid representations of Europe at war – the changing gender roles of women in war work, the destruction caused by enemy fire during the London Blitz, and the horrors of the concentration camps – that embraced and adapted the principles and methods of Surrealism. This book examines how Miller’s war photographs can be interpreted as ‘surreal documentary’ combining a surrealist sensibility with a need to inform. Each chapter contains a close analysis of specific photographs in a generally chronological study with a thematic focus, using comparisons with other photographers, documentary artists, and Surrealists, such as Margaret Bourke-White, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, George Rodger, Cecil Beaton, Bill Brandt, Henry Moore, Humphrey Jennings and Man Ray. In addition, Miller’s photographs are explored through André Breton’s theory of ‘convulsive beauty’ – his credence that any subject, no matter how horrible, may be interpreted as art – and his notion of the ‘marvellous’.

American artist Man Ray spend the most productive years of his career, during the 1920s and 1930s, in Paris.

This book offers an unprecedented insight into one of the most fascinating artistic relationships of the 20th century.

Lee Miller (1907-1977) moved to London in the late 1930s, just as a rich strand of Surrealist practice was burgeoning in Britain. Miller was central to its development and prolonged life after World War II, exhibiting alongside British Surrealists such as Eileen Agar and Henry Moore in often overlooked London exhibitions. This book is the first to present Lee Miller's photographs of, and collaborations with key British Surrealists alongside their artworks, to tell the story of this exciting cultural moment. Miller's photographs of noted continental Surrealists such as Max Ernst and E.L.T Mesens, taken while they were working and exhibiting in Britain, also feature alongside their works, documenting their enduring friendships with Miller and her husband, the artist Roland Penrose. Miller's interdisciplinary photographic practice acted as a conduit for the dispersal of Surrealist images out of the realm of fine art and into the worlds of fashion, commercial photography and journalism. A vital study for all students and enthusiasts of Surrealism and those enthralled by the enigmatic Lee Miller, this book reveals the social and cultural networks in which she was embedded, offering a holistic view of her work and the life of the Surrealist movement in Britain. Exhibition: The Hepworth, Wakefield, UK (22.06.-07.10.2018).

American-born artist Lee Miller (1907-1977) has been increasingly championed by scholars and curators for her Surrealism-inspired photographs. Her captivating images of Paris in the late 1920s and early 1930s, her dreamlike portraits of desert landscapes and sexually suggestive architecture taken in Egypt in the mid-1930s, and her witty, yet often disturbing, photographs of the Second World War and its aftermath have been widely discussed. However, while popular interest in Miller’s colourful life and photographic work has been rapidly growing during the past forty years, her true worth as a prominent Surrealist artist has been somewhat overlooked. This new collection of essays addresses this issue, revalidating Lee Miller’s Surrealist position, not simply as a muse, friend, and collaborator with the Surrealists, but as one of the twentieth century’s most important and influential female Surrealist artists.

A biography, gourmet cookbook, and inside look at one of the mid-century's most creative and fascinating figures. A woman of many lives and mistress of her own re-invention, Lee Miller was a model, surrealist, fashion photographer, war correspondent, gourmet cook, and more. She did everything in her life wholeheartedly and with an imaginative flair. Though much has been written about the varied forms of her creativity, Miller's achievement as a gourmet chef is usually relegated to the endnotes. However, her granddaughter, Ami Bouhassane, views cooking as a vastly important part of her life--her longest battle and most extraordinary personal accomplishment in every sense. As a trustee of the Lee Miller Archives, Bouhassane has worked closely with the material for more than nineteen years. Coupled with her access to never-before-published manuscripts and photographs, Bouhassane's unique insight into her grandmother's life reveal previously unknown aspects of Miller. More than just a collection of recipes, this award-winning cookbook explores Miller's life through the influence of food and shows us how it became the creative vehicle for which she eventually swapped her camera and used it to build bridges, heal old wounds, and empower other women. Featuring more than 180 of Miller's pictures, nearly one hundred of her recipes, an introduction by her son, Antony Penrose, and material from the cookbook that she was secretly hoping to publish at the end of her life, Lee Miller: A Life with Food, Friends & Recipes is a treasure not to be missed.