Through Lee Miller’s viewfinder

“I’m no good with my hands, though I am good with a screwdriver – taking a camera apart. But sewing on a button? I could scream.” As one of only six accredited female combat photographers, Lee Miller shook up the world of photojournalism with her unforgettable war pictures. But even before that, her beloved camera – a heavy Rolleiflex – was her passport to the world. Lee was still a hugely successful model when she decided to ‘enter photography from the back’. Why be in front of the camera when you can be behind it?

Soon, the adventuress was taking us along on exhilarating journeys across the globe – from the bustling streets of New York to the ancient pyramids of Egypt – catching what she called ‘flashes of poetry’ through her viewfinder. As poetic as Lee may have been, she was also very practical. She simply loved the technique behind the art. Forever taking her cameras apart and experimenting in the darkroom, Lee would come up with inventions like the dreamy ‘solarization’ effect which became the emblematic look of Surrealist photography. Her lover and mentor Man Ray would try to claim the invention as his but stood no chance. “Women war photographers had to fight on two fronts,” Lee once wrote, “the bombs, and the men.” With her camera as her weapon, Lee could easily win from both.