She was one of the most remarkable female icons of the 20th century: Lee Miller. From fashion model and Man Ray’s muse, she became a successful photographer and internationally renowned war correspondent. The documentary Lee Miller – The Liberation of a Photographer portrays a free-spirited woman who refused to submit to the men around her, lived by her own rules, and would not be constrained by prevailing morals.
Lee Miller (1907–1977) was born in Poughkeepsie, New York. Young, beautiful, and self-assured, she met Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue, by chance in 1927. Soon afterward, she appeared on the magazine’s cover in an illustration by George Lepape. Her modeling career then took off rapidly.
When she decided that she wanted to be behind the camera rather than in front of it, she left for Paris—the center of jazz in the ’20s—to seek out the Surrealist artist and photographer Man Ray. She became his student, studio assistant, and, despite their age difference, his lover.
Together they were perfectly suited to the era’s liberating movement. Their collaboration was exceptional: as a model, she understood what Man Ray wanted as a photographer.
In the mid-’30s, Miller settled in London, where she began working as a photographer for Vogue. At the end of World War II, she documented the liberation of Europe and photographed the Dachau concentration camp when it was liberated by Allied forces. The impact of what she witnessed contributed to the trauma she experienced later in life.
Lee Miller was a woman who never apologized for who she was.
Miller withdrew to the English countryside and struggled with alcohol addiction. She hid her photographs in boxes in the attic of her home. Only after her death did her son discover her work, a record of her remarkable life.
In the film, her son, granddaughter, biographer, a friend, artists, and war photographers reflect on Lee Miller’s groundbreaking work, her free and radical spirit, her courage, and her willingness to break taboos as both an artist and a woman.
Directed by Teresa Griffiths
Produced by Erica Starling Productions/Ronachan Films, Rachel Hooper
Original title: Capturing Lee Miller
