Saturday 28 April 2012

An evening with Lee Miller

What a fantastic evening was had at the Bognor Regis camera club last Thursday. The invited speaker was Antony Penrose, son of the late Lee Miller and Roland Penrose. The talk centred around Lee's life and work, and what a life it was!

Antony's talk gave invaluable 'behind the scenes' information  which really helped to put the images into context. We learnt why Lee's career changed from model for vogue to photographer, about her move to Paris and involvement with Man Ray and the surrealist movement. We learnt about the discovery of 'solarisation' and then followed Lee from D Day to the liberation of the concentration camps, stopping of at Hitler's apartment on the way.

The evening included information about the Lee Miller archive and the steps taken to preserve her work and make it available for exhibitions around the world. 

But the final cherry on the cake was having my book 'The lives of Lee Miller', which accompanied the talk, signed by Antony Penrose!