The Art of Lee Miller

Lee Miller (1907-77) was not only one of the great beauties of the 20th century but one of its most remarkable photographic artists. Miller was photographed constantly by her father Theodore and in the 1920s by outstanding New York photographers such as Arnold Genthe and Edward Steichen, while Georges Lepape drew her for a Vogue cover in 1927. Arriving in Paris in 1928, she became the apprentice, collaborator and muse of Man Ray and played a leading role in a masterpiece of Surrealist cinema, Jean Cocteau's The Blood of a Poet (1931). Lee Miller is unique in performing with brilliance on both sides of the camera. She conceived and exhibited many Surrealist-inspired photographs of haunting originality; she was a portraitist of genius and an inspired and daring war photographer. This definitive book brings together all the major vintage prints for the first time, including sensational works never published before, rare and revealing drawings and an extraordinary collage from 1937, as well as extracts from her writing. All aspects of Lee Miller's career are covered in detail, including Paris (1928-32), her New York studio (1932-4), the Egyptian period (1934-7) and travels in the late 1930s, her powerful war reportage, and finally her post-war portraiture.