Lee Miller
Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG
2 October – 15 February 2026
Curators Hilary Floe and Saskia Flower have put together this Lee Miller retrospective exhibition of 200 plus photographs, including some never before printed. The exhibition traces her career as a model in New York, to her love of being behind the lens. Miller was born in 1907 in Poughkeepsie, New York State. Began modelling in 1926, very successfully for the next few years. Moved to Paris in 1929, determined to be an artist, collaborating intimately with Man Ray and immersing herself in surrealism and the avant-garde art community. She married businessman Aziz Eloui Bey in 1934 and travelled extensively in Egypt and surrounding countries.Â
In 1939, she joined Roland Penrose in London and joined British Vogue. She gained her credentials as a US War Correspondent for Condé Nash in 1942. In 1944, when accredited female war correspondents were given permission to enter war zones, she travelled to Normandy to document the war through compelling essays and photography for British Vogue, she continued to work for Vogue until 1953.
Photomaton self portrait, New York City, c.1927, reproduction. The first photo booths were introduced in New York in 1925.
From the top of the Great Pyramid, Giza, c.1938. Photograph, modern gelatin silver print on paper.
The small scale and format of the majority of photographs in this exhibition require measured scrutiny,
Bruce Howard as Saint Teresa 11, Edward Matthews as Saint Ignatius, Bertha Fitzhugh Baker as Saint Settlement,Â
Altonell Hines as Commère, Abner Dorsey as Compère, From Four Saints in Three Acts, Lee Miller Studios, Inc., New York City, 1933. Five photographs, modern gelatin silver prints on paper. A Lee Miller Studios commission to photograph a groundbreaking modernist opera.
Miller’s war correspondent pass dated 30 December, 1942.
Lee Miller’s US war correspondent formal dress uniform with replica shirt and tie, Kilgour, French and Stanbury Ltd, 1943, and Lee Miller’s Rolleiflex camera, 1943.
Lee Miller in Hitler’s bathtub, Hitler’s apartment, 1945. The iconic self-portrait of Miller in Hitler’s bath shows her strong and determined character. Miller set up the camera and her lover at the time, Life photographer David Scherman took the picture. On the morning of the same day Miller had visited Dachau and Hitler committed suicide in Berlin. A gallery is dedicated to the shocking photographs by Miller of Dachau Concentration Camp after liberation, together with various images of Nazi suicides.
Elephant grey, Vogue Studio, London, 1944. Photograph, digital C-print on paper. Checkmate, Checks cleverly placed…, London, 1943. Photograph, digital C-print on paper. Cut-away coat, tearsheet from British Vogue, February 1944. Test proof for British Vogue cover, April 1944. Enthused by Kodachrome colour film, Checkmate was her first colour image for Vogue.
Roland Penrose, Downshire Hill, London, 1949. Photograph, digital C-print on paper. Miller married Roland Penrose in 1947. They became leading figures in the post war art world. Miller’s health was damaged by her wartime experiences, her interest in photography diminished and she developed a new enthusiasm for cookery.
