On View Magazine Fall 2015 | Page 119

F O C U S

Man Ray. First as teacher and
student, and later as lovers, their
relationship was a key source
of mutual and sustained inspiration, resulting in some of the
most powerful work of each artist’s career. Through Man Ray,
Miller came in contact with a
circle of surrealists. She adopted their iconography and their
strategies of altering pictorial
motifs. The exhibition’s title
references Man Ray’s sculpture of a metronome featuring
Lee Miller’s eye that he titled
Indestructible Object.
In 1938, Miller moved to London to work as a fashion pho-

tographer for British Vogue. She
also began capturing on film the
ravages caused by German air
raids in London during the Blitz.
In 1942, Miller became accredited as a war photographer and
moved across Europe at the front
line with American troops. Her
images of the London Blitz,
liberation of Paris, and Dachau
and Buchenwald concentration
camps were among the most
powerful photographs of World
War II. Profoundly affected by
her experiences during the war
and after it, Miller returned to
England, married, and ceased
taking photographs. O n V iew

opposite page:
man ray and lee miller,
Neck (Portrait of Lee Miller),
ca. 1930. © man ray
estate and Lee Miller
Archives, England.
All rights reserved.
this page
(top to bottom):
1. Lee Miller,
Scharnhorst Boy, 1945,
Modern exhibition
digital print.
© Lee Miller Archives,
England 2015.
All rights reserved.
2. Lee Miller,
SS Guard in Canal, 1945,
Vintage gelatin silver print.
© Lee Miller Archives,
England 2015.
All rights reserved.