LorraineDevine
Lee Miller
I have long been a fan of Lee Miller. I was very interested in the work of Man Ray many years ago, and came to know her work then as a consequence. (I also very much appreciated the work of Tina Modotti, who sometimes moved in the same/similar circles).
Lee Miller had a difficult start in life. A rape at a very young age left a permanet residue which influenced how she related to people and events.
She metamorphosised from glamorous young model and muse into journalistic fashion photographer and then Documentary War photographer.
She was tenacious and determind.
She let nothing or no one stand in the way of her intentions.
This exhibition revealed quite a lot about being a women in the early part of the 20th Century.The cliches and restrictions.
She would eventually be photographed in Hitlers bath tub after his death, having just come from Dachau concentration camp.
the images in this exhibtion, are a combination of beautiful frocks and heroic women.
Lee miller would eventually suffer mental health issues because of what she had witnessed during thw war.
What really grabbed my attention about this group of images, what really appealed to me was defiance.
She defied all conventions. As did most of her female colleagues reporting from other countries.
She hid this wartime life from friends and family for many years. Her son did not know of his mothers experiences until after her death, and it is he who has promoted her photography and organised a new examination of its importance and merit.
This clearly draws links with my reserach on the stories of the forgotten women of the Irish revolutions and civil war in the early 20th Century. stories ignored. Histories forgotten.
WAR LIBERATED LEE MILLER, ALLOWING HER TO EXPLORE HER FULL POTENTIAL, AS IS THE CASE FOR MANY WOMEN.