In The Guardian article Lee Miller is described as having her world view and work shaped by trauma.  Reference is made to her being raped at the age of seven (this issue will be opened for discussion in a subsequent post), and that the other contributing trauma was her being an eyewitness to a teenage boyfriend dying in an accident….

The Guardian article features a well-known photograph of Picasso and Lee in his studio at 7 Rue des Grands-Augustins, taken by Lee after the liberation of Paris. This photograph frequently appears in publications about Lee after Lives and is generally accompanied by a statement attributed to Picasso – “The first allied soldier I have seen is a woman – she is you”….

The Guardian article reports that Lee was blacklisted for appearing in an advertisement for Kotex products. According to Antony Penrose in Lives, Lee entered modelling history when her image was featured as the first model for a feminine hygiene product, albeit without her knowledge….

The Guardian article asserts that Lee Miller “invented” solarization, but that Man Ray received the credit. Solarization (The Sabatier or pseudo-Sabatier effect) is simply exposing of a developing photograph to light during the development process. The final product results in positive and negative features….

There are two observations that are worth making in conclusion to the foregoing. The first is that The Guardian article was randomly selected for review merely because its publication was contemporaneous with the initiation of this post. The second observation is….

The story of Lee’s New York modeling years is a vital pillar supporting the legend.  It is an astonishing construct because it presents as fact a story of mythic proportion with essentially no factual basis. When researching the veracity of matters presented as fact, a good starting point is the maxim “trust your inner ear”….

In The Guardian article referred to in the opening of this discussion forum, the author offers two early traumatic life events that shaped Lee’s worldview and life.  The first was the death of Harold Baker, previously discussed, and the other is sexual abuse that Lee allegedly suffered at the age of seven…

In the fall of 1931 Lee Miller’s roommate and best friend, Tanja Ramm introduced Lee to her friend Aziz Eloui Bey, a wealthy Egyptian businessman. At the time, Aziz was married to Nimet Eloui Bey….

Throughout the spring and summer of 1932, Lee Miller is cast by Antony Penrose’s Lives as being a victim adrift in a “Storm of Passion” through which she navigated her way among swells of love, divorce and death. This story line is difficult to believe….

According to Lives and its progeny, Lee Miller navigated her way through the storm of passion, but eventually she decided that it was time to leave Paris. By the summer of 1932 Lee had lost the support and referral business of Man Ray, her roommate and friend, Tanja Ramm had married an American and had left Paris and the Depression had reached and entrenched itself in France…

This article will be somewhat different and certainly more personal than previous posts. A few years ago, while researching the Egyptian side of Lives, I came across the website of the writer and historian, Michael Haag and encountered correspondence from Sylvia Mikkelsen concerning his book Alexandria: City of Memory…

Lee Miller stayed with Aziz Eloui in Egypt between the summer of 1934 when she was twenty-seven and the summer of 1939 when she was thirty-two. There is very little to comment on during this five-year span because she did not achieve very much of note…

An inquiry was recently received from a follower of this forum in London as to the nature and extent of any relationship between the forum and the Lee Miller Archives (Archives) at Farleys House & Gallery. After providing some background, it was explained that the relationship…

During the preparation of An Invitation: Farleys House & Gallery and the Lee Miller Archives, an interview with Ami Bouhassane by Elisabet Riera Millán was reviewed in La Surrealista Oculta. By chance, I read a few pages past the interview and came across this passage…

The focus of this forum has been, and it remains, the examination of the narrative which has been constructed to support the legend of Lee Miller since the appearance of Lives in 1985. To date, various highlights of the Lee Miller narrative have been examined and challenged but…

During WWII (1939-1945) Lee Miller was, first and foremost, a fashion and lifestyle correspondent and photographer for the woman’s magazine, Vogue (U.K.). Between 1940 and August 1945, her work appeared in every issue of Vogue (U.K.) that was published between those years…

The previous chapter ended with the following statement:

There is, however, an aspect of Lee Miller that always revolves around the notion that, “but, she was there” be it Paris in the late 1920’s, New York City in the 1930’s or WWII in the 1940’s…

The movie LEE was released in the United Kingdom on September 27th, 2024. It is based on Antony Penrose’s 1985 book, The Lives of Lee Miller, (Lives) and it seems an appropriate ending to this forum to review the movie for accuracy of both its representations of the Penrose book and historical facts pertinent to Lee Miller…