I came upon this site inadvertently but after reading through it I thought you might be interested in reading a bit of work about Lee Miller posted by a friend of mine, Tuya Elat. You can find it at A New Perspective: Lee Miller Guide and Research Forum
I had never heard of Lee Miller until a friend told me about her and the film. We visited Farleys House last Friday (only 30 mins from where we live) and saw the exhibition, then I saw the film on Saturday. There’s a sculpture garden at the house which I fell in love with. Learning about Lee, visiting her home and watching the movie made me realise what a small (conventional) life I’ve led. What a woman! From model, to surrealist, to photographer, to being in the front line of WW2 as a war photographer, an American in Europe who settled in sleepy East Sussex, who then wrote recipes. I loved the film and the portrayal of Lee as a gutsy, passionate, independent, brave woman who knew her own mind. I found the ending especially poignant. There’s a line in the film which feels especially relevant to writers, something like “first write the truth, then make it good”. I may have to write a post based on that.
Yes—that is how so many of these women have made me feel, as if my life was rather small. That is a big part of why I wanted to blow it up and live bigger!
In 2022, there was a major surrealist exhibition called ‘Surrealism and Magic’ at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, which also featured many female surrealist painters such as Carrington, Fini and Varo, whom I had not known about before. It was great to see all these pictures and I was very impressed! (Here is the link to the exhibition: https://www.museum-barberini.de/en/ausstellungen/1921/surrealism-and-magic-enchanted-modernity)
I knew Lee Miller as a war correspondent from her legendary bathtub picture, but I didn't know until recently that she was also active as a surrealist artist. There is a very interesting book about female war correspondents, ‘Eine Amerikanerin in Hitlers Badewanne’, ("Am American in Hitlers Bathtube") which tells the stories of Lee Miller, Martha Gellhorn and Margaret Bourke-White (I don't know if it has also been published in English), which I can highly recommend.
I thought the film ‘Lee’ was excellent, even though it ‘only’ focused on her time as a war correspondent. Kate Winslet, who I greatly admire, was absolutely the perfect choice to play her.
I will definitely be delving deeper into Lee Miller's work. Above all, it has given me the urge to pick up a camera again.
I loved Age of Light and in fact actually used it as a comp title when pitching my own historical novel, The Ashtrays Are Full and the Glasses Are Empty (coming out in May 2025 from Koehler Books!). Audacious Women, Creative Lives is such a great theme!
Thank you, Anne!!! For me all this attention at last for women surrealists such as Lee Miller is like Christmas!
I've been working to make them more well-known for years as a university lecturer and as a writer. My novel about the women surrealists, called Swimming with Tigers, is coming out next week and my main character is a composite of several women one of which is Lee Miller, in the 30s.
I was trepidacious about the film but it blew me away with its serious intent and excellent performances (apart from Alexander Skarsgård which I thought was ludicrous casting: a Swedish actor to play the ultimate British upper class man Roland Penrose!).
As to the invisibility of women's achievements and their reluctance to push themselves forward, it's been the keynote of all my research on women writers and artists for three decades but also the 'work' I've had to do on myself. A few years ago the idea of writing a message like this which mentions my own writing and background would have been impossible; I simply wouldn't have had the confidence or felt I had the right. On top of this, women in the past had none of our freedoms (and I am appalled that in the US some of these rights are now at risk again).
Society's place for women has never been as separate individual and artists with a right to be seen or heard. It's up to us to make sure we remember the achievements of women in the past and honour them by taking heart and inspiration from what they've made and done.
It's so heartening to read all these comments mentioning Carrington and others. I'll be posting an artwork every day this week by Lee MIller on Notes as part of my final week of six 'This Week's Woman Surrealist'.
Best of luck, Anne, with your course. Like me, you've moved from scholarly to creative writing and I bet you'll never regret it. I haven't!
This is wonderful, Kathy! I’m so glad to see that you are sharing and promoting your own work while gaining recognition for surrealist women. They are utterly fascinating!
Gah! I LOOOVE Lee Miller. I haven't (yet) had the chance to see the film but I cannot wait. Thank you for writing this! And on the 100th anniversary of Surrealism no less! I actually own Age of Light but have yet to read it. I've been worried it won't live up to my love of Lee, but it sounds like I'm wrong. Thank you as always for the lovely post!
Thank you for pointing us to this photographer and film. It’s part of undoing / resetting the erasure for us to raise up each other’s work and its importance.
When I first learned Lee Miller had taken those photographs of the Nazi suicides after Hitler's death, it gutted me. Those images have haunted me for decades. So has she. Did you read Jeanne Mackin's BEAUTIFUL AMERICAN about her story? I'm looking forward to the new LEE movie which I hadn't otherwise known about. Love knowing what you're diving into with fresh eyes.
What kismet! I had purchased tickets for a friend and I to see the movie ‘Lee’ only one day earlier, when your newsletter about her and the movie came out. (As a general rule, I’ll see almost anything which stars Kate Winslet!) I didn’t know anything about Lee Miller, and was captivated by her bold, fascinating life, although I felt the movie script lacked depth and was not quite as good as I’d hoped. Nonetheless, it was a visually impressive film that introduced me to a woman determined to live and work on her own terms. As generations pass, it becomes harder and harder to conceive of a time when gender restricted where you could go and what you
could (or should) do for a living. Movies like Lee are important reminders that even though things are hardly 100 percent rosy for women, our professional and personal freedoms are vastly improved.
Yes, it is hard to believe she couldn’t even go into a briefing! How ridiculous. The film was very vivid and emotional, I thought, in its portrayal of the war, but lacked some depth, as you say.
I read Lee Miller and Surrealism in Britain not so long ago https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/lee-miller-and-surrealism-in-britain-eleanor-clayton/332343?ean=9781848222724. It accompanied an exhibition at the Hepworth back in 2018 and touches on Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst, whose relationship was similar to that Miller had with Ray. They were all part of the same Surrealist circle - lots of men getting what they want, fewer women getting what they want, too. Carrington interests me in the same way Miller does, and I keep meaning to read the Joanna Moorhead book Elaine mentions. I heard her speak about it at a Manchester Literature Festival event when it came out. I did watch a documentary about Carrington on the BBC earlier this year - Leonora Carrington: The Lost Surrealist. It's not on iPlayer currently but someone seems to have added it to YouTube. It's worth watching.
I haven't seen the Lee film yet, but I coincidentally read an old copy of Harper's Bazaar at the hairdresser yesterday, which had an interview with Kate Winslet about the film and her approach to life in the public eye. She's another audacious woman.
Thank you for mentioning the Carrington documentary as I found it on YouTube and will watch it later. As I go to Mexico every winter, I am hoping to visit the Carrington Museum in San Luis Potosí in the new year. I see too that her son has just written a memoir about her, so will dip into that.
What a fascinating novel to choose -- a fictionalized biography is just perfect for you, not to mention its audacious female subject, Lee Miller. But why on earth would she want to hide the results of her formidable talent?
I first learned of Lee Miller when I read Joanna Moorhead's biography of Leonora Harrington, the audacious British-Mexican surrealist. There is a photo included in the book of four women, posing as muses to their male counterparts. They have their eyes closed, suggesting they are unconscious, but they were obviously camping it up.
"...women are widely overshadowed by the iconized narratives of their male colleagues and feature less prominently in the recounting of photojournalism’s history."
Several years ago, I wrote an article for the now defunct magazine, AMERICA IN WWII, about the female correspondents of WW2 - and Lee Miller's story captivated me. I'll forever regret not going to an exhibit on Lee at the Imperial War Museum in London back in 2015. I'm really excited to see the new Kate Winslet film.
I'm glad classes are going well and I hope you figure out a rhythm that works for you. My daughter was so frazzled during her first two weeks of school (she went back to school at 24) but now she's doing great.
Thank you for your post. I saw the film a few days ago. I hadn't heard of Lee Miller before and was impressed with how brave she was and determined for the world to know of the horrors of the war. She took some astonishing photos. I would like to go to the museum and its a shame the movie exhibition ends this month. I'll definitely read the book now.
Oh wow, that sounds a lot like Whitney Scharer's book. I'll have to read this one too. It would be interesting to see how two writers take on the same subject. Thanks for sharing it!
I came upon this site inadvertently but after reading through it I thought you might be interested in reading a bit of work about Lee Miller posted by a friend of mine, Tuya Elat. You can find it at A New Perspective: Lee Miller Guide and Research Forum
I had never heard of Lee Miller until a friend told me about her and the film. We visited Farleys House last Friday (only 30 mins from where we live) and saw the exhibition, then I saw the film on Saturday. There’s a sculpture garden at the house which I fell in love with. Learning about Lee, visiting her home and watching the movie made me realise what a small (conventional) life I’ve led. What a woman! From model, to surrealist, to photographer, to being in the front line of WW2 as a war photographer, an American in Europe who settled in sleepy East Sussex, who then wrote recipes. I loved the film and the portrayal of Lee as a gutsy, passionate, independent, brave woman who knew her own mind. I found the ending especially poignant. There’s a line in the film which feels especially relevant to writers, something like “first write the truth, then make it good”. I may have to write a post based on that.
I like this too: “first write the truth, then make it good”. Thank you for reminding me about that!
Yes—that is how so many of these women have made me feel, as if my life was rather small. That is a big part of why I wanted to blow it up and live bigger!
In 2022, there was a major surrealist exhibition called ‘Surrealism and Magic’ at the Barberini Museum in Potsdam, which also featured many female surrealist painters such as Carrington, Fini and Varo, whom I had not known about before. It was great to see all these pictures and I was very impressed! (Here is the link to the exhibition: https://www.museum-barberini.de/en/ausstellungen/1921/surrealism-and-magic-enchanted-modernity)
I knew Lee Miller as a war correspondent from her legendary bathtub picture, but I didn't know until recently that she was also active as a surrealist artist. There is a very interesting book about female war correspondents, ‘Eine Amerikanerin in Hitlers Badewanne’, ("Am American in Hitlers Bathtube") which tells the stories of Lee Miller, Martha Gellhorn and Margaret Bourke-White (I don't know if it has also been published in English), which I can highly recommend.
I thought the film ‘Lee’ was excellent, even though it ‘only’ focused on her time as a war correspondent. Kate Winslet, who I greatly admire, was absolutely the perfect choice to play her.
I will definitely be delving deeper into Lee Miller's work. Above all, it has given me the urge to pick up a camera again.
Sounds like an amazing exhibition and book. Thanks for sharing!
I loved Age of Light and in fact actually used it as a comp title when pitching my own historical novel, The Ashtrays Are Full and the Glasses Are Empty (coming out in May 2025 from Koehler Books!). Audacious Women, Creative Lives is such a great theme!
Congratulations on your impending book birthday!
Thank you, Anne!!! For me all this attention at last for women surrealists such as Lee Miller is like Christmas!
I've been working to make them more well-known for years as a university lecturer and as a writer. My novel about the women surrealists, called Swimming with Tigers, is coming out next week and my main character is a composite of several women one of which is Lee Miller, in the 30s.
I was trepidacious about the film but it blew me away with its serious intent and excellent performances (apart from Alexander Skarsgård which I thought was ludicrous casting: a Swedish actor to play the ultimate British upper class man Roland Penrose!).
As to the invisibility of women's achievements and their reluctance to push themselves forward, it's been the keynote of all my research on women writers and artists for three decades but also the 'work' I've had to do on myself. A few years ago the idea of writing a message like this which mentions my own writing and background would have been impossible; I simply wouldn't have had the confidence or felt I had the right. On top of this, women in the past had none of our freedoms (and I am appalled that in the US some of these rights are now at risk again).
Society's place for women has never been as separate individual and artists with a right to be seen or heard. It's up to us to make sure we remember the achievements of women in the past and honour them by taking heart and inspiration from what they've made and done.
It's so heartening to read all these comments mentioning Carrington and others. I'll be posting an artwork every day this week by Lee MIller on Notes as part of my final week of six 'This Week's Woman Surrealist'.
Best of luck, Anne, with your course. Like me, you've moved from scholarly to creative writing and I bet you'll never regret it. I haven't!
This is wonderful, Kathy! I’m so glad to see that you are sharing and promoting your own work while gaining recognition for surrealist women. They are utterly fascinating!
Gah! I LOOOVE Lee Miller. I haven't (yet) had the chance to see the film but I cannot wait. Thank you for writing this! And on the 100th anniversary of Surrealism no less! I actually own Age of Light but have yet to read it. I've been worried it won't live up to my love of Lee, but it sounds like I'm wrong. Thank you as always for the lovely post!
It can be hard to read historical novels about figures we also know so well. I hope you enjoy The Age of Light!
Thank you for pointing us to this photographer and film. It’s part of undoing / resetting the erasure for us to raise up each other’s work and its importance.
When I first learned Lee Miller had taken those photographs of the Nazi suicides after Hitler's death, it gutted me. Those images have haunted me for decades. So has she. Did you read Jeanne Mackin's BEAUTIFUL AMERICAN about her story? I'm looking forward to the new LEE movie which I hadn't otherwise known about. Love knowing what you're diving into with fresh eyes.
Thanks for mentioning Mackin's book. Looks amazing. I will definitely try to get a hold of that.
What kismet! I had purchased tickets for a friend and I to see the movie ‘Lee’ only one day earlier, when your newsletter about her and the movie came out. (As a general rule, I’ll see almost anything which stars Kate Winslet!) I didn’t know anything about Lee Miller, and was captivated by her bold, fascinating life, although I felt the movie script lacked depth and was not quite as good as I’d hoped. Nonetheless, it was a visually impressive film that introduced me to a woman determined to live and work on her own terms. As generations pass, it becomes harder and harder to conceive of a time when gender restricted where you could go and what you
could (or should) do for a living. Movies like Lee are important reminders that even though things are hardly 100 percent rosy for women, our professional and personal freedoms are vastly improved.
Yes, it is hard to believe she couldn’t even go into a briefing! How ridiculous. The film was very vivid and emotional, I thought, in its portrayal of the war, but lacked some depth, as you say.
I read Lee Miller and Surrealism in Britain not so long ago https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/lee-miller-and-surrealism-in-britain-eleanor-clayton/332343?ean=9781848222724. It accompanied an exhibition at the Hepworth back in 2018 and touches on Leonora Carrington and Max Ernst, whose relationship was similar to that Miller had with Ray. They were all part of the same Surrealist circle - lots of men getting what they want, fewer women getting what they want, too. Carrington interests me in the same way Miller does, and I keep meaning to read the Joanna Moorhead book Elaine mentions. I heard her speak about it at a Manchester Literature Festival event when it came out. I did watch a documentary about Carrington on the BBC earlier this year - Leonora Carrington: The Lost Surrealist. It's not on iPlayer currently but someone seems to have added it to YouTube. It's worth watching.
I haven't seen the Lee film yet, but I coincidentally read an old copy of Harper's Bazaar at the hairdresser yesterday, which had an interview with Kate Winslet about the film and her approach to life in the public eye. She's another audacious woman.
Thank you for mentioning the Carrington documentary as I found it on YouTube and will watch it later. As I go to Mexico every winter, I am hoping to visit the Carrington Museum in San Luis Potosí in the new year. I see too that her son has just written a memoir about her, so will dip into that.
I hope you get to see the Museum, Elaine. I've never been to Mexico - maybe one day! And enjoy the documentary when you get to it, too.
I too have been interested in Leonara Carrington. What a story and whan an incredible artist!
For those interested, here is link to a really fascinating talk by the art historian Susan Aberth on Carrington and the Tarot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6iijJAbrAc&t=20s
An amazing woman!!! Thanks for bringing back these audacious women to the conversation!
What a fascinating novel to choose -- a fictionalized biography is just perfect for you, not to mention its audacious female subject, Lee Miller. But why on earth would she want to hide the results of her formidable talent?
I first learned of Lee Miller when I read Joanna Moorhead's biography of Leonora Harrington, the audacious British-Mexican surrealist. There is a photo included in the book of four women, posing as muses to their male counterparts. They have their eyes closed, suggesting they are unconscious, but they were obviously camping it up.
Looking forward to seeing the film.
I'd like to read more about Leonora Carrington. I'll have to look for Moorhead's biography.
fyi: https://time.com/4694204/women-war-photographers/
"...women are widely overshadowed by the iconized narratives of their male colleagues and feature less prominently in the recounting of photojournalism’s history."
Several years ago, I wrote an article for the now defunct magazine, AMERICA IN WWII, about the female correspondents of WW2 - and Lee Miller's story captivated me. I'll forever regret not going to an exhibit on Lee at the Imperial War Museum in London back in 2015. I'm really excited to see the new Kate Winslet film.
I'm glad classes are going well and I hope you figure out a rhythm that works for you. My daughter was so frazzled during her first two weeks of school (she went back to school at 24) but now she's doing great.
Thanks, Melissa. I'll get there. You're the second one to mention that exhibit. I wish I had seen it!
Thank you for your post. I saw the film a few days ago. I hadn't heard of Lee Miller before and was impressed with how brave she was and determined for the world to know of the horrors of the war. She took some astonishing photos. I would like to go to the museum and its a shame the movie exhibition ends this month. I'll definitely read the book now.
My introduction to Lee Miller was when one of my closest BFFs wrote this book about her! https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Woman-in-the-Photograph/Dana-Gynther/9781476731964
Oh wow, that sounds a lot like Whitney Scharer's book. I'll have to read this one too. It would be interesting to see how two writers take on the same subject. Thanks for sharing it!