Lee Miller

 Lee Miller  -Tate Britain 16th October 2025

Lee Miller, April 23 1907 - July 21 1977  

 

Wonderful exhibition of Lee Miller's work. (If you've not heard of her, the film about her "Lee"  with Kate Winslet is excellent and accessible,  - and of course there's plenty to read.

 Most famous for her war photography, but a life before that on the other side of the camera, and work with other artists/photographers, not least Man Ray  (more on that later) 

  

"On April 30, 1945, photojournalists David E. Scherman and Lee Miller produced one of the most controversial photographic series of the twentieth century; while documenting Hitler's apartment on the day of his suicide, they photographed each other in the Adolph Hitler's bath"

(Pic of Lee in Uniform  from Wikipedia)

Many photos taken on her Rolleiflex - https://www.leemiller.co.uk/faqs/ confirms she used two during the war, one in use, one loaded ready to go. - 12 photos per roll. The medium format negs of wonderful quality. Suggested she also used a 35mm Zeiss Contax.

Her photos of the liberation of Buchenwald & Dachau Concentration camps remain some of the most powerful ever, and alerted the world to that reality. This is movingly retold in "Lee" movie, and the images can easily be found online . I won't include detailed pics here, but see below the contact Sheets of those 2 1/42 Square 6x6cm negs 

  

One of the joys of the exhibition was seeing original prints of stunning detail & tonal range, Info provided about the print whether original archive prints, modern photographic prints, or indeed newer digital prints 

Solarisation / Solarization & Man Ray

Lee became "Man Ray’s apprentice, assistant, muse and lover" (British Vogue) As a photographer I've always been fascinated by this relationship and the labelling of this technique known as solarisation. Probably every traditional film photographer has solarised an image, possibly by mistake, (Switching a light on part way through print development)  as is most likely the case with Lee Miller's/Man Ray's first. (Yes, it's not just a Photoshop effect)  See below one of Lee's, and one of mine --(Mine was deliberate, some 35 years ago)

But is it Solarisation?

It's interesting to me me, (if no one else) to discuss this. My take (following formal photographic theory training) has always been, not that I mind,  that this not in fact solarisation  - but the Sabatier Effect (sometimes Sabattier) or pseudo-solarisation - while actual solarisation is the partial reversal of an image on film where gross over exposure causes that reversal. We don't talk much now about film characteristic curves, but take a look below at my college notes, 1976ish - and text book, showing the curve dipping back below
D Max -Maximum Density. Fascinating stuff, don't you think?? 

 

Tate Britain allow photography in their galleries. Most of Lee's pics are from the exhibition, and hopefully I've acknowledged everything else. Please do let ne know of any issues. 

Keep snapping