A journey of grit and glamour: Honouring the legacy of American fashion and war photographer Lee Miller

An exhibition showcasing Lee Miller’s harrowing images chronicling the war in Europe aims to present a richer — and more truthful — portrait of the extraordinary figure and her contributions to the arts.
Lee Miller, A Photographer at Work (1932—1945) is on display at The Image Centre at Toronto Metropolitan University (33 Gould St.) from September 11 to December 7. The show delves into an intense and highly nuanced period in Miller’s professional life during which she became a renowned portrait photographer with her own New York studio that attracted high-society clients, a fashion photographer for Vogue in London, then head of the studio, and a daring war correspondent from 1942 to 1945 for the magazine’s British edition.
Miller’s groundbreaking photography career has often been eclipsed by her work as a magazine model in the late 1920s and her training and collaboration with visual artist Man Ray, along with her close ties to the Surrealist movement. The exhibition will challenge these diminishing perspectives and recognize Miller for the fearless and intrepid photographer she was, said Gaëlle Morel, exhibitions curator at The Image Centre.
“For the longest time she was viewed as just the muse and model, but when you look at the archive, that’s not what you see,” Morel explained, adding that the work of women photographers has historically been devalued or disregarded, due to systemic misogyny.
“The reference to Man Ray to me is problematic. That isn’t the right story. She did work with him and learn from him — this is not revisionist history — but it’s more complex. She was foremost a professional photographer. She was curious, and obviously brave and adventurous, and she created opportunities for herself. I think she wanted to live a full, interesting life. That’s closer to the real story.”
The exhibition, organized in collaboration with the Lee Miller Archives, England, illuminates the rapidly changing roles of women, who, after the enlistment of men during the Second World War, were granted a small window of opportunity to push the boundaries.
Miller captured candid images of simpler, more practical wartime fashion for women, often posing models amid the rubble with bombed-out buildings from The Blitz as the backdrop. As a war photojournalist, she documented a field hospital in Normandy, the liberation of Paris, harrowing scenes at the liberation of Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps, and the destructive aftermath of combat, traveling to Belgium and Luxembourg.
Readers of the magazine were said to be shocked by her graphic images of emaciated prisoners, corpses, the crematoria and treatment of the guards.
“For me, this is the moment that became the climax of her work as a photojournalist,” said Morel. “She deserves recognition, and a more complex understanding of her portraits. We want to make sure women are recognized in the right way.”
Many never-before-seen photographs, printed by the Lee Miller Archives, will be on display.
For more information about the exhibit, upcoming public programming and daily drop-in times, visit: theimagecentre.ca. For the latest news and updates, follow The Image Centre on social media at @imagecentreto and subscribe to the newsletter.