Lee Miller

Fabulous exhibition at Tate Modern on the life and work of Lee Miller.

I thought I’d done all there was to do on Miller having attending talks by her son, been to Farley Farm and gone to numerous exhibitions but this show led us though her modelling and photography so beautifully and included a lot of never seen before work. It was obvious that a lot of research had gone into the show.

It managed to express the joy of her early life as a model and then with the Surrealists without the shadow of the war work that was to come. I got a real sense of friendship, and although a later work, her portrait of Dorothea Tanning made me laugh out loud it was so joyous.

Miller had a real eye for the strange in her images which began with the work with Man Ray but continued into the war. I think my favourite work in the show was this one of a boot and bullets.

I liked the fact the concentration camp pictures were in a side room and I noticed a number of people couldn’t face them. Given Miller usually didn’t photograph the direct horrors of war these have a visceral quality. I was amazed to find she had no zoom on her camera for that assignment so she was as involved as she appeared to be.

Closed 15 February 2026


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