Lee Miller

Lee Miller (1907–1977) stand nicht nur Modefotografen und Künstlern Modell, sondern arbeitete ab Anfang der 1930er Jahre auch selbst als Fotografin in unterschiedlichen Genres wie Mode-, Porträt- und freier Kunstfotografie. Während des Zweiten Weltkriegs war Miller für die Vogue tätig, für die sie ab 1944 ebenfalls Texte zu ihren eigenen Fotografien verfasste. Im Auftrag des Modemagazins begleitete Miller die Invasion der Alliierten auf dem europäischen Kontinent. Denn bedingt durch die forcierte Mobilisierung der Bevölkerung – d.h. auch der Frauen – wollte die Vogue kriegsrelevante Inhalte in ihr Format integrieren.
Für eine Reportage über Süddeutschland am Kriegsende erkundete Miller mit einem kritischen Blickwinkel für den Nationalsozialismus wichtige Orte, u.a. auch Hitlers Privatwohnung. Dort nahm sie Fotografien von sich selbst in Hitlers persönlichem Badezimmer auf. Diese Selbstinszenierung von Miller besticht durch ihre symbolische Vielschichtigkeit und ästhetische Qualität. Im Vortrag wird erörtert, wie in dieser komplexen fotografischen Allegorie der alliierte Sieg und die Befreiung vom Nationalsozialismus (insbesondere von dessen Führerkult, Geschlechterkonzept und Ästhetik) im Zusammenhang mit einer surrealistischen Freiheitsvision zum Ausdruck gebracht wird.

This essay examines images of the liberation of Dachau concentration camp taken by American war correspondent and photographer Lee Miller. Miller’s work is mobilized as an optic through which to grasp the shock of confronting the Nazi camps. Her images are read as a form of visual testimony. That is, although they fail to provide a transparent view of what occurred in the Nazi lagers, they are nevertheless inscribed with all that the photographer did not know of the events to which she bore witness. The nature of this strange unintelligibility is what the author pursues: the visual inscription of the unspeakable as a disquieting resource for thinking through the paradoxes of witnessing and the transmission of human experience.

Lee Miller’s photographs of the London Blitz, including the twenty-two published in Ernestine Carter’s Grim Glory: Pictures of Britain Under Fire (1941), effectively demonstrate what Susan Sontag described as “a beauty in ruins”. As a former student and muse of Man Ray during the 1930s and a close associate of the Surrealists in Paris, Miller was able to utilize her knowledge of Surrealism, and other art forms, to create an aestheticized reportage of a broken city ravished by war. In Miller’s case, her war photographs may be deemed aesthetically significant by considering her Surrealist background and by analyzing her images within the context of André Breton’s theory of “convulsive beauty”—his idea that a scene of destruction can be represented or analyzed as something beautiful by convulsing, or transforming, it into its apparent opposite. Miller’s war photographs, therefore, not only depict the chaos and destruction of Britain during the Blitz, they also reveal Surrealism’s love for quirky or evocative juxtapositions while creating an artistic visual representation of a temporary surreal world of fallen statues and broken typewriters. As Leo Mellor writes about these dualities, “The paradox of Miller’s wartime reportage was announced in the title of her book of documentary photographs, Grim Glory; that is to say, the coexistence of darkening mortality and ideal exaltation, like a Baroque conceit”.

During the Second World War, the world’s press faced the difficult task of recording the horrific scenes of conflict, death and destruction they had witnessed across Europe. Often these scenes were so incredulous that many reporters found it impossible to articulate what they had seen into words and turned to photographers to translate the horrors into visual images. The war photograph, therefore, took on the crucial role not only of historical document, but also as a means to inform, provoke, shock and remind. In this essay, I will discuss how the American Surrealist and war correspondent Lee Miller recorded horrors of the Second World War, and the concentration camps at Dachau and Buchenwald, in particular. Through the Surrealist practice of ‘fragmentation’ she was able to use her knowledge of art to break down, or ‘fragment’, scenes of death and destruction into smaller, digestible chunks for the readers of Vogue magazine on both sides of the Atlantic. As hybrids of art and historical documentation, Miller’s concentration camp photographs become ‘modern memorials’ to the victims of war and the Holocaust.

During World War II, Lee Miller was an accredited war correspondent for Vogue magazine.  Miller was trained as a surrealist photographer by Man Ray, and her wartime work, both photographic and written, is indicative of a combination of journalism and surrealism.  This thesis examines Lee Miller’s war correspondence within the context of Vogue magazine, establishing parallels between the photographs and writing to determine how surrealism informs it stylistically and ideologically.  Using surrealist techniques of juxtaposition and an unmanipulated photographic style, and the surrealist concepts of the Marvelous and Convulsive Beauty, Miller presented the war as a surreality, or a surreal reality.  This study concludes by using Miller’s approach to suggest a new concept of journalistic practice: surrealist journalism.

An exploration of the indeterminacy of the visual works of Claude Cahun and her refusal to be categorised. Cahun's ambivalent critiques of colonialism, fascism, capitalism, traditional art and literary practices, surrealism, gender and identity are examined through a number of photographic self portraits, collages and objects.

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, the horrors of the concentration camps—that embraced and adapted the principles and methods of Surrealism. This monograph 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’.

Landscapes of Holocaust Postmemory, explores traumatic landscapes that encourage us not only to reflect on what happened in places associated with the Nazi regime and its atrocities, but also to analyze the political and cultural status of the Holocaust in the early twenty-first century.

Susan Sontag in her 2003 book Regarding the Pain of Others suggests that images of war and destruction can be interpreted as aesthetic objects--that there is “a beauty in ruins”. A landscape of war is still a landscape. A painting depicting war is still a piece of art. Lee Miller’s photographs taken during the latter years of World War Two demonstrate this argument--that images of war can be justified as being aesthetic artefacts through the photographer’s creative use composition and form and by considering the image within the context of the Surrealist Andre Breton’s theory of “convulsive beauty”, his idea that anything can be deemed beautiful even the most disturbing or horrific of subjects. A scene of death and destruction can, therefore, be transformed into something beautiful, something aesthetic by convulsing it into its apparent opposite.

This paper will discuss how Miller’s war photographs can be interpreted as aesthetic by analysing how Miller uses her knowledge of art--through the creative use of composition and form and the application of Bretonian Surrealism--and by arguing that a war photograph often involves a hybrid-aesthetic, justified by its interpretation as a combination of art and historical documentation. Miller’s photographs taken at the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps, therefore, not only inform and act as crucial documentary evidence that the holocaust existed, they also show scenes photographed with a great sensitivity, a need to inform, technical excellence and the presence of a “surrealist eye”.

Women have been increasingly visible in the world of Surrealist Art. Recently, women have been even more prominent in the art world, as they are more likely to study art in the first place, therefore leading to more women artists generally.
There is a currently significant critical attention in the role of women in Surrealism because of the movement’s misogynistic sentiment. The way women within the movement have worked and been working with Surrealist ideas is a theme that has been addressed in recent art discourse...

On 8 May 1945 American war photographer, Lee Miller, sent a telegraph to the editor of Vogue magazine, Audrey Withers, along with a collection of negatives that she had taken at the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau, demanding “I IMPLORE YOU TO BELIEVE THIS IS TRUE!” Through these photographs she also appealed to Vogue’s readers, particularly in the United States, to be aware of, if not totally comprehend, the atrocities that had been committed by the Nazis. Her photographs, she hoped, would act as visual evidence by placing the readers directly in view of those horrors in an attempt to provoke as well as inform.
In this paper I will explore how Miller, once the muse and apprentice of the Surrealist artist Man Ray, approached the Holocaust in order to visualise the inconceivable. By using her ‘surrealist eye’ she was able to create aesthetic representations of one of the most horrific periods in human history. Miller’s images not only have great worth as historical documents, they also give expression to testimony, experience and memory of the Holocaust. In addition, I will consider the work of theorists and writers such as John Berger, Susan Sontag and Walter Lippman and their views regarding the visual representation of the Holocaust in order to explore how photographers, like Miller, were able to use their artistic skills to effectively frame the horror as a form of ‘modern memorial’  for future generations.

El artículo parte de la fotografía tomada por David Scherman a Elizabeth “Lee” Miller en la bañera del departamento donde Adolfo Hitler vivió junto a su sobrina Geli Raubal. Scherman era corresponsal de la revista Life y Miller, una modelo reconocida por su continua aparición en revistas de moda estadounidenses y por las fotografías que ella misma tomó en el marco de la corriente surrealista y al final de la II Guerra Mundial. El propósito es analizar dicha imagen en perspectiva sincrónica para encontrar en las intersecciones, aquello que ésta no manifiesta abiertamente. La hipótesis que desarrolla el texto se refiere a que la fotografía demuestra dos victorias de tipo ideológico en el marco del conflicto bélico, ya que expone públicamente a los vencedores de la guerra y la ruptura en la concepción nacional socialista de la mujer.

Carrying its ever-present rebellion, Surrealist Photography does not define itself within a time frame, a set of rules, a movement. Andre Breton’s "Manifeste du surrealisme" mobilized and inspired Surrealist artists of its time, yet its purpose was never to provide a strict guideline on how to be a Surrealist. Surrealist Photography’s contribution to art history is an imminent mindset and an attitude towards the world: the Surrealist gaze. Hence, this movement does not exist with a compartmentalized time and space, but rather a way of seeing and a way of being. Surrealism never has a predilection for shallow shock factor; it simply seeks to uncover unknown realities of the world.

A guerra é comumente considerada um espaço masculino. Dificilmente encontramos mulheres nos campos de batalha. Mais rara ainda é a presença de fotojornalistas na cobertura de guerra. Neste artigo, recorremos às autoras Susan Sontag e Judith Butler para refletirmos sobre a atuação da mulher na história da fotografia de guerra. Tomamos como objeto de estudo as singularidades da vida e obra da fotógrafa Lee Miller. War is commonly seen as a male space. We hardly encounter women on the battlefields. Even more rare is the presence of women photojournalists in the coverage of the war. In this article, we resorted to authors Susan Sontag and Judith Butler to reflect on women's role in the history of war photography. We take as object of study the singularities of the life and work of the photographer Lee Miller.

In her own words, Eva Braun contradicted the now fashionable belief that Hitler and she were lovers. In fact, no one in Hitler's inner circle, and no one in Eva's family, ever contended that Hitler and Eva had a sexual or even a romantic relationship.

On 8 May 1945 American war photographer, Lee Miller, sent a telegraph to the editor of Vogue magazine, Audrey Withers, along with a collection of negatives that she had taken at the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau, demanding “I IMPLORE YOU TO BELIEVE THIS IS TRUE!” Through these photographs she also appealed to Vogue’s readers, particularly in the United States, to be aware of, if not totally comprehend, the atrocities that had been committed by the Nazis. Her photographs, she hoped, would act as visual evidence by placing the readers directly in view of those horrors in an attempt to provoke as well as inform. In this paper I will explore how Miller, once the muse and apprentice of the Surrealist artist Man Ray, approached the Holocaust in order to visualise the inconceivable. By using her ‘surrealist eye’ she was able to create aesthetic and historical interpretations of one of the most horrific periods in human history. Miller’s images not only have great worth as historical documents, they also give expression to testimony, experience and memory of the Holocaust. In addition, I will consider the work of theorists and writers such as John Berger, Susan Sontag and Walter Lippman and their views regarding the visual representation of the Holocaust in order to explore how photographers, like Miller, were able to use their medium and artistic skills to effectively reconstruct the horror as a form of ‘modern memorial’ for future generations.

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, the horrors of the concentration camps—that embraced and adapted the principles and methods of Surrealism. This monograph 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’.

As the former muse of the Dada-Surrealist Man Ray, the American-born photographer Lee Miller’s work contains an in depth knowledge of Surrealist practices, in particular her use of the method of fragmentation as both a compositional tool and as a mechanism for artistic control. Working within an essentially misogynist artistic circle proved invaluable in her later role as a war photographer for Vogue magazine capturing the horrors of the Second World War. As Linda Nochlin writes that “the human body is not just the object of desire, but the site of suffering, pain and death”.

This paper explores Miller’s photographic representations of the body, firstly, through her collaboration with Man Ray, secondly, in her role as a Surrealist photographer, and, thirdly, as a war correspondent photographing the victims of conflict. Drawing upon the work of theorists such as Susan Sontag, Julia Kristeva, John Berger and André Breton, I will argue that Miller’s experience as a Surrealist muse provided her with the foresight to photograph the bodies she came across on the battlefields of Europe and, in particular, at the concentration camps of Dachau and Buchenwald. Sontag explains, “It seems that the appetite for pictures showing bodies in pain is as keen, almost, as the desire for ones that show bodies naked”.

Lee Miller’s photographs of the London Blitz, including the twenty-two published in Ernestine Carter’s Grim Glory: Pictures of Britain Under Fire (1941), effectively demonstrate what Susan Sontag described as “a beauty in ruins”. As a former student and muse of Man Ray during the 1930s and a close associate of the Surrealists in Paris, Miller was able to utilize her knowledge of Surrealism, and other art forms, to create an aestheticized reportage of a broken city ravished by war. In Miller’s case, her war photographs may be deemed aesthetically significant by considering her Surrealist background and by analyzing her images within the context of André Breton’s theory of “convulsive beauty”—his idea that a scene of destruction can be represented or analyzed as something beautiful by convulsing, or transforming, it into its apparent opposite. Miller’s war photographs, therefore, not only depict the chaos and destruction of Britain during the Blitz, they also reveal Surrealism’s love for quirky or evocative juxtapositions while creating an artistic visual representation of a temporary surreal world of fallen statues and broken typewriters. As Leo Mellor writes about these dualities, “The paradox of Miller’s wartime reportage was announced in the title of her book of documentary photographs, Grim Glory; that is to say, the coexistence of darkening mortality and ideal exaltation, like a Baroque conceit”.

This paper treats Lee Miller's photographs of the London Blitz as a species of dream, which is to say, the Surrealist's images are regarded as a special form of thinking in which the conflicts and horrors of the times are represented in an effort to discharge their destructive force. This treatment calls upon Freud's discussion of dream-work, but also upon Didier Anzieu and Wilfred Bion's later writings, which consider the defensive and protective qualities of oneiric life. Miller's photography, like dream, provides a glimpse into the interior dimension of human existence. The essay argues that this interior dimension provides protection not only from inner psychological and biological traumas, but also from social and political aggression. In the era of air war, photography provides a powerful tool of civil defense.

A guerra é comumente considerada um espaço masculino. Dificilmente encontramos mulheres nos campos de batalha. Mais rara ainda é a presença de fotojornalistas na cobertura de guerra. Neste artigo, recorremos às autoras Susan Sontag e Judith Butler para refletirmos sobre a atuação da mulher na história da fotografia de guerra. Tomamos como objeto de estudo as singularidades da vida e obra da fotógrafa Lee Miller.
War is commonly seen as a male space. We hardly encounter women on the battlefields. Even more rare is the presence of women photojournalists in the coverage of the war. In this article, we resorted to authors Susan Sontag and Judith Butler to reflect on women's role in the history of war photography. We take as object of study the singularities of the life and work of the photographer Lee Miller.

On 8 May 1945 American war photographer, Lee Miller, sent a telegraph to the editor of Vogue magazine, Audrey Withers, along with a collection of negatives that she had taken at the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau, demanding “I IMPLORE YOU TO BELIEVE THIS IS TRUE!” Through these photographs she also appealed to Vogue’s readers, particularly in the United States, to be aware of, if not totally comprehend, the atrocities that had been committed by the Nazis. Her photographs, she hoped, would act as visual evidence by placing the readers directly in view of those horrors in an attempt to provoke as well as inform. In this paper I will explore how Miller, once the muse and apprentice of the Surrealist artist Man Ray, approached the Holocaust in order to visualise the inconceivable. By using her ‘surrealist eye’ she was able to create aesthetic representations of one of the most horrific periods in human history. Miller’s images not only have great worth as historical documents, they also give expression to testimony, experience and memory of the Holocaust. In addition, I will consider the work of theorists and writers such as John Berger, Susan Sontag and Walter Lippman and their views regarding the visual representation of the Holocaust in order to explore how photographers, like Miller, were able to use their artistic skills to effectively frame the horror as a form of ‘modern memorial’ for future generations.