Lee Miller's uncharted journey: A groundbreaking biographical drama
On September 3, the biographical drama "Lee. In Her Own Eyes" debuted in the cinemas. The story of the famous model and later photojournalist, who was one of the first to document the horrors of German concentration camps up close, isn't widely known. It's a shame because it's a film worth watching, featuring what may be an Oscar-worthy performance by Kate Winslet and excellent cinematography by Paweł Edelman.
12:27 PM EDT, September 20, 2024
The extraordinarily beautiful Elizabeth Miller, known simply as Lee to those close to her, was an American born in 1907. At twenty, she began her career as a model and was photographed by some of the greatest artists of the interwar period. However, she quickly grew tired of this role. Instead of being photographed, she preferred taking photos; instead of posing, she wanted to create. She then moved to Paris, where she began learning photography under the surrealist and dadaist Man Ray. She also served as a muse for artists, including Pablo Picasso.
The outbreak of World War II found her in London, where she was collaborating with the famous magazine Vogue. As Europe plunged into chaos, Miller did not want to observe events from a safe distance. The conservative British did not agree that a woman could become a war correspondent, but the Americans saw no major obstacles.
"With her pictures, she gave a voice to those who had been deprived of it," said the film’s director, Ellen Kuras, at last year’s Toronto Film Festival. Miller was the only one allowed into the women's section of the military barracks, where she took the famous photo of drying women's underwear. She also photographed Ania Leska, one of three Polish women serving in the British Auxiliary Air Force.
Miller was one of the first photojournalists to document up close the sacrifices of soldiers, the suffering of civilians, and the horrors of German concentration camps. This was highlighted in Ellen Kuras' film. No substitute terms were used when she was one of the first people to enter the liberated Dachau. We hear "German death camps" from the screen.
Lee Miller's photo reports showing piles of skeletal human remains became some of the most shocking testimonies of the Holocaust. Unfortunately, British censorship blocked most of Lee's photos, especially those documenting the concentration camp atrocities. The then-editor-in-chief of "Vogue" sent them to the American editorial office. Based on them, in June 1945, a shocking photo report was published, which was one of the first to reveal to the world the scale of German crimes.
