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From April 10 to August 2, 2026, the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris presents the most significant retrospective dedicated to Lee Miller in France in twenty years. Organized by Tate Britain and in collaboration with the Art Institute of Chicago, the exhibition brings together nearly 250 vintage and modern prints, including several previously unpublished works, offering a fresh perspective on Lee Miller's oeuvre.
A key figure in the international avant-garde, Lee Miller (1907, Poughkeepsie, United States – 1977, Chiddingly, United Kingdom) was successively a model, surrealist artist, portraitist, fashion photographer, and war correspondent accredited by the US Army. Long relegated to the role of muse, she is now recognized as one of the great photographers of the 20th century. The exhibition traces her entire career, from her beginnings in New York to her wartime years in Europe, via her stay in Egypt and her life in London. It demonstrates the richness of an work where formal experimentation, visual boldness, and political engagement coexist. Eighteen years after the last French retrospective at the Jeu de Paume, the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris proposes a six-part journey, blending chronological and thematic approaches. The exhibition opens with a collection of portraits of Lee Miller taken by the greatest photographers and filmmakers of the 1920s and 1930s. Lee Miller established herself as a personality in late 1920s New York, initially through her modeling work. She was one of the most sought-after models for magazines, embodying the archetype of the modern, emancipated, and active woman. During her stay in Paris, her ties with the surrealists led her to play one of the lead roles in Jean Cocteau's first film, Le Sang d’un poète (1930-1932). The journey continues by examining the importance of her Parisian stay between 1929 and 1932. This period was marked by her meeting with Man Ray, whose apprentice and companion she became. Their intense collaboration explored the erotic power of the photographic medium, notably materializing in their joint discovery of what Lee Miller called "solarization." Also known as the Sabatier effect, solarization is a technique involving briefly re-exposing a print or negative to light during processing. This results in a partial inversion of the photograph's tones, creating a dreamlike halo effect. This phenomenon was first observed in the 1840s, but Man Ray and Lee Miller are often considered the first artists to use it creatively. Lee Miller opened her own studio and worked as a photographer for Vogue, asserting her desire for artistic independence. Her photographs, distinctive for their taste for oblique framing and unusual juxtapositions, were exhibited in Parisian galleries alongside those of the era's great photographers (Germaine Krull, Brassaï...). This very rich period ended with her departure for New York in 1932, where she opened a new studio. Her first solo exhibition was organized by the Julien Levy Gallery. There would be no others during her lifetime. Her portrait photography activity, to which two sections are dedicated, truly took off and continued throughout her life. It reflects her numerous connections with artistic and literary circles. In 1934, Lee Miller married Egyptian businessman Aziz Eloui Bey and settled with him in Cairo. The photographs from this period are striking for their emphasis on motifs, textures, and framings that compose her images. Far from exploring exotic themes, Miller focused more on contrasts of materials and forms, and the shifts in perception induced by camera angles. In 1937, Miller's meeting with surrealist painter and poet Roland Penrose gradually drew her away from Egypt. She spent more time in Europe with her surrealist friends. In 1939, with the outbreak of war, she chose to remain in London and gradually became involved with British Vogue publications as a fashion photographer. This section shows the use of ruins and bombings of London in her shots. She also contributed to the publication in May 1941 of the book Grim Glory: Pictures of Britain Under Fire, which testifies to daily life during the Blitz by mixing patriotic celebration and dark humor. In the winter of 1942, Miller was one of the few female photographers to obtain accreditation as a war correspondent from the United States. Henceforth, she covered the conflict directly and devoted many reports to women engaged in the war: nurses, anti-aircraft defense members, and pilots, published in both British and American Vogue. A few weeks after the June 1944 Landings, she crossed the Channel to follow the advance of Allied troops and found herself on the front lines, notably during the liberation of Saint-Malo. Her photographs and articles denounced the violence of the conflict. The exhibition shows how she distinguished herself from classic war reporting through her tone and very personal commitment. Her eye and sensitivity focused more on meaningful details than on the theater of military operations. In April 1945, alongside Life photographer David E. Scherman, Lee Miller went to Dachau and Buchenwald shortly after the camps' liberation. Accompanied by an article ("Believe it" – June 1945), some of her images published in Vogue conveyed her shock. Lee Miller's photographs were among the first to reveal the Nazi mass extermination enterprise to the general public. On April 30, 1945, shortly after photographing the Dachau camp, Lee Miller went to Munich and entered Adolf Hitler's apartment. In a fully staged photograph loaded with symbolism, she posed in the dictator's bathtub. Little disseminated at the time, the image is now considered one of the most iconic photographs of the end of the global conflict. Until January 1946, Lee Miller photographed Europe and the Liberation. These images reflect pain and deprivation but also the left-behinds of Liberation, such as women and children. Miller told her editor: "I prefer to describe the damage to destroyed cities and injured people rather than face the broken morale and annihilated faith of those who thought 'things would go back to normal'." In the following years, Miller struggled to recover from her war experience. The final section of the exhibition is devoted to her settling at Farley Farm House (Sussex) with Roland Penrose and their son Antony. Lee Miller continued her reports and fashion photography for Vogue for a while, but gradually ceased her commercial work. In a more private setting, she continued to take portraits of her loved ones, reflecting her ongoing commitment to the international avant-garde. Farley’s House, a reflection of the Miller-Penrose couple, became an important place for artistic encounters where Lee Miller indulged in many culinary experiments, often paying homage to the inventiveness of her friends.
Price: From 0 to 17 euros.
Source: paris.fr — photo: Lee Miller Archives England 2026 All Rights Reserved