Lee Miller: A Life
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A trenchant yet sympathetic portrait of Lee Miller, one of the iconic faces and careers of the twentieth century. Carolyn Burke reveals Miller as a multifaceted woman: both model and photographer, muse and reporter, sexual adventurer and mother, and, in later years, gourmet cook—the last of the many dramatic transformations she underwent during her lifetime. A sleek blond bombshell, Miller was part of a glamorous circle in New York and Paris in the 1920s and 1930s as a leading Vogue model, close to Edward Steichen, Charlie Chaplin, Jean Cocteau, and Pablo Picasso. Then, during World War II, she became a war correspondent—one of the first women to do so—shooting harrowing images of a devastated Europe, entering Dachau with the Allied troops, posing in Hitler’s bathtub. Burke examines Miller’s troubled personal life, from the unsettling photo sessions during which Miller, both as a child and as a young woman, posed nude for her father, to her crucial affair with artist-photographer Man Ray, to her unconventional marriages. And through Miller’s body of work, Burke explores the photographer’s journey from object to subject; her eye for form, pattern, and light; and the powerful emotion behind each of her images.A lushly illustrated story of art and beauty, sex and power, Modernism and Surrealism, independence and collaboration, Lee Miller: A Life is an astute study of a fascinating, yet enigmatic, cultural figure.The New York Times - Janet MaslinMs. Burke's approach is generous even when facts present Miller in a less than flattering light…while [she] sometimes lets lists of parties, trips and famous friends overwhelm her, she also captures the excitement of Miller's omnivorous spirit…Certainly the book provides connective tissue between the woman and her work during the most vibrant part of her life.
Contents Introduction xi Part One: Elizabeth 1. A Poughkeepsie Girlhood (1907-15)2. Never Jam Today (1915-25) 3. Circulating Around (1925-26) 4. Being in Vogue (1926-29) Part Two: Miss Lee Miller 5. Montparnasse with Man Ray (1929-30) 6. La Femme Surrealiste (1930-32) 7. The Lee Miller Studio in Manhattan (1932-34) Part Three: Madame Eloui Bey 8. Egypt (1934-37) 9. Surrealist Encampments (Summer 1937) 10. The Egyptian Complex (1937-39) Part Four: Lee Miller, War Correspondent 11. London in the Blitz (1939-44) 12. Covering the War in France (1944-45) 13. Covering the War in Germany (1945) 14. Postwar (1945-46) Part Five: Lady Penrose 15. Patching Things Up (1946-50) 16. A Double Life (1950-61) 17. A Second Fame (1961-71) 18. Retrospectives (1971-77) Afterword Appendix: A Lee Miller Dinner for EightNotes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index
