Lee Miller is arguably the 20th century's most famous woman photographer. During her extraordinary life, she came into contact with a wide range of people including many of the most celebrated and influential artists, writers, actors, fashion designers and socialites of the last century. The photographs include not only Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Dora Maar, Igor Stravinsky, Henry Moore, Colette, Marlene Dietrich, Fred Astaire and a host of others, but also pictures of unsung individuals engaged in war work. Most memorable of all are Miller's pictures of victims and perpetrators of Nazi oppression - some of the most powerful images from the last century. These brilliant portraits are shown together for the first time. Throughout the book, Richard Calvocoressi demonstrates the originality and artistry of the photographer's work, while exploring the relationship between the photographs and Lee Miller's fascinating life.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This collection of over 150 photographs chronicles the model-turned-freelance photographer's distinctive 30-year career, from her beginnings as a portraitist with Man Ray, through her long association with Vogue magazine. Two-thirds of Miller's oeuvre consists of portraits; while most here are of famous artists and writers (René Magritte, Pablo Picasso, Ivy Compton-Burnette), the most arresting portraits come from her work as a WWII photoreporter for Vogue (at the time, Vogue was one of the leading publications for war coverage). Miller's frontal-view compositions reveal her frank and unflinching attitude toward the world around her; the disturbing close-ups of female collaborators in Paris and the smashed nose of an SS prison guard in Buchenwald repel even as they compel. Calvocoressi, the director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art in Edinburgh, introduces the book, suggesting that the "ability to elicit feelings of disgust and sympathy at the same time is arguably what makes Miller and other war photographers... great artists." Her greatest accomplishments, Calvocoressi maintains, are her portraits of Picasso, which were produced over a 20-year period; she catches the artist, Calvocoressi writes, "absorbed in some activity, unselfconscious rather than posing." Gathered for the first time in this collection, Miller's work deserves a studied glance. 157 b&w illus.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Everything about Miller is unusual and, until now, too little known. A classic beauty, her first forays into the world of photography took place in front of the lens after Conde Nast saved her from being run over on a Manhattan street, then promptly hired her as a model for Vogue. In Paris she became muse, lover, and protege to surrealist Man Ray, opening her own studio in Montparnasse in 1930. A woman of innate style with, as Calvocoressi so crisply attests, an "unflinching" eye, Miller graduated rapidly from fashion shoots to celebrity portraiture, drawing from her subjects--Picasso, Stravinsky, Dylan Thomas, Colette, Clark Gable--images of not only sophisticated composition but also arresting emotional resonance. Courageous and intrepid, Miller then transformed herself into a war correspondent, covering the horrors of the London Blitz, Normandy, Buchenwald, and Dachau with awesome presence of mind and transcendent artistry. Most of the riveting photographs published in this singular volume haven't been seen in 50 years, or were never published until now, and all add immeasurably to the human record. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A marvellous memento,
By
This review is from: Lee Miller: Portraits from a Life (Hardcover)
Now that we have definitively entered into a troubled 21st century, I am developing a weird kind of nostalgia for the equally troubled previous one. This book, a marvellous memento of the period between 1930 and 1960, does everything to fuel this ambiguous attraction. With portraits of Chaplin, many of the leading Surrealists, Picasso, Stravinsky, T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Henry Moore and many others, Miller's twin eye Rolleiflex produces a very intimate view of the artistic scene in the middle of the 20th century. Some of the pictures were taken in the artist's studio, some in Miller's own studio, but most show the sitters informally and relaxed in mundane surroundings, weaving the mystery of artistic inspiration into the fabric of daily life. Whatever the context, Miller's portraits show the mark of a great artist, with composition, lighting and atmosphere invariably matched to the personality of the sitter. A great deal of her pictures are quite classical in conception, but many are spiced up with an occasional Surrealist wink. The war pictures are a different matter. When Miller registers the ravages of this savage conflict, irony makes way for tragic grandeur. For example, the portrait of a Nazi suicide, daughther of the Leipzig Mayor, reconnects with the dramatic clair obscur of Carravaggio. Many of the images of wrens and ordinary service men reveal the quiet determination of people amidst a whirlwind of extreme violence. One of the most impressive pictures of this period, and in a sense an untypical one, depicts a murdered German prison guard floating in a canal bounding the Dachau camp, producing a mixture of the bucolic and the tragic which is very moving. This book is beautifully produced and is a delight to hold in your hands. The captions that go with the pictures are well written and very informative. I would have wished for a more extensive lead essay by Richard Calvocoressi, but maybe we can find more information elsewhere. Pity also that the UK version of this book sports the Hein Heckroth portrait on its cover, which I do not find one of the most attractive pictures in this collection. But these minor quibbles do not detract for this valuable addition to my library.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A truly captivating, highly recommended gallery,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lee Miller: Portraits from a Life (Hardcover)
Compiled and captioned by Richard Calvocoressi (Director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh), Lee Miller: Portraits from a Life is an amazing collection of memorable and visually impressive black-and-white photographs taken by the extraordinary fashion model and professional photographer Lee Miller, who began to study the craft of capturing life with a camera in Paris during 1929. A complete range of Lee Miller's moving and inspirational photographs is presented, with each with a brief caption offering a little background on the setting and people. A significant contribution to any personal, professional, academic, or community library Photography reference collection, Lee Miller: Portraits From A Life a truly captivating, highly recommended gallery showcasing the work of a very remarkable and talented woman.
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The world feels like Lee Millers family album,
By
This review is from: Lee Miller: Portraits from a Life (Paperback)
A photographically rich tapestry of lives, lives that were all rich in so many different ways.
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