Lee Miller

A comprehensive look at the work of the groundbreaking photographer, foregrounding her importance as a surrealist artist.

Lee Miller (1907-77) assumed many roles over the course of her remarkable life - from avant-gardist to commercial photographer to war correspondent and photojournalist - and to each of these roles she brought her unique artistic sensibility. Though she was intimately connected with many of the leading figures associated with surrealism, including Man Ray, Pablo Picasso, and Max Ernst, and participated in major exhibitions of her time, Miller was also at times marginalised in the art world as a woman and as a photographer in an era when photography's status as an art form was not widely accepted. Her genre-bending work incorporated portraiture, fashion, still life, landscape, reportage, and advertising: fearless, poetic and surreal, it reveals a world of uncanny beauty and sensual ambiguity - often with a humorous edge.

Drawing on new primary research, Lee Miller features essays exploring every aspect of Miller's career, from her early years in Paris, New York and Cairo to her wartime journalism and late portraits. Additionally, the British novelist, playwright, and poet Deborah Levy offers a personal reflection on Miller and her art. Beautifully illustrated with hundreds of images, the book provides a comprehensive exploration of Lee Miller, revealing her as one of the most urgent creative voices of the twentieth century.

Tate Britain, London: 2 October 2025 - 15 February 2026

Musee d'Art Moderne de Paris: 3 April - 26 July 2026

Art Institute of Chicago: 29 August - 7 December 2026

About the Author

Hilary Floe is Senior Curator, Modern and Contemporary British Art, Tate Britain. Saskia Flower is Assistant Curator, Modern and Contemporary British Art, Tate Britain. Damarice Amao is Associate Curator for Photography at the Musee National d'Art Moderne/Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Deborah Levy is a British novelist, playwright and poet. She has been shortlisted twice each for the Goldsmiths Prize and Booker Prize and won the Prix Femina Etranger. Levy has also written for The Royal Shakespeare Company and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.