We were still in the midst of the heat wave on Friday May 29. High of 32C. We headed out mid-morning to the Farmers Market which is held on a street near the Belleville Metro, just a few minutes from the apartment. Our host had told us that it was an excellent market for locals and the prices were very low. The market is held on Tuesdays and Fridays from early morning until about 1:30 p.m. Regis had said there was another market in our 'hood, a bit further away but that it was 'Bobo' and more expensive.
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| Lots of mint-- peaches, apricots, and plums |
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Lots of fruit and vegetables--- the market was very large-- we didn't even get to the end of it.
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| Alain choosing a zucchini |
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| Tomatoes and peppers |
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| We got some fish here |
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| Busy, buzzy market |
We dropped the produce at the apartment and headed out on the Metro to the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris to see the largest retrospective devoted to the photographer, Lee Miller in France in twenty years. It was initiated by the Tate Britain and had been presented there in the fall of 2025. The Paris exhibition brings together about 250 photographs, some of which have never been exhibited. It also features some additional loans attesting to Miller's strong ties to Paris.
Lee Miller was a key figure of the international avant-garde ( born 1907, Poughkeepsie, New York- 1977, Chiddingly, United Kingdom). She was a fashion model, surrealist artist, portraitist, fashion photographer and war correspondent accredited to the U.S. Army. While she was initially relegated to the role of muse, she is now recognized as one of the major twentieth century photographers.
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Entrance to the exhibit
The exhibition follows her entire career, from her beginnings as a fashion model in New York, to her first photographs; her stay in Paris from 1929-1932; the opening of her own studio in Paris and then New York in 1932; pictures in Egypt after her marriage an Egyptian businessman in 1934 (which was over by by the end of the 1930s); the war years in London; and her photos taken as an accredited war correspondent. There were also photos of her artist friends and other portraits taken both before and after the war. She had an incredible eye and her compositions were very innovative and striking. She was also fearless. Her body of work contains experimentation, visual boldness and political engagement.
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Frederick A. Smith, Miller Family portrait. Lee is standing next to her father on the right.
Lee was first a model for her father who was a keen amateur photographer. She received her first camera, a Kodak Brownie, when she was nine. She began modelling professionally in New York City in 1926, while studying painting at the Art Students League. She became one of professional modelling's first stars. She was inspired to become a photographer herself, declaring that she would "rather take a picture than be one." Moving to Paris in 1929, she apprenticed herself to two of the city's leading photographers, Man Ray and George Hoynigen-Huene. She established her own studio in 1930.
All photographs below are by Lee Miller, unless otherwise noted.
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| Self-portrait, modelling Mado-Dobbs sports hat and Miranda coat. This rare fashion self-portrait was published in American Vogue in September 1930, alongside five photographs by Miller of other models. |
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| Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitsky, dit), Portrait of Lee Miller, 1930 |
Miller first apprenticed to Man Ray and they became lovers. She soon outgrew her apprentice role, establishing her own studio in 1930, but the pair continued to work together until 1932, when they had a falling out. They had closely entwined practices and in some cases it can be difficult to establish clear authorship. Miller later noted that some of her work was published as Man Ray's.
Miller and Man Ray often photographed from a distance before cropping and enlarging a detail to make the composition. As Man Ray's assistant in 1929-1930, Miller also did most of his printing.
The image below began as a bust-length shot of Miller, which Man Ray discarded. Miller retrieved the negative and produced this exquisite print, tightly cropped around her own curving throat. When she declared the work her own, the pair quarrelled. Man Ray later signed it and published it under his name.
Man Ray and Lee Miller. Neck (Lee Miller) Paris, 1929
1929-32 were some of the most creatively fertile of Miller's life. She established a studio in her Montparnasse apartment and lived and worked at the centre of the Parisian avant-garde. She met and befriended many surrealist artists. Miller 'exploited the camera's ability to free images from their familiar contexts, giving them new meanings'. In the early 1930s, photography was not yet widely recognised as an art form. Miller's work was published and exhibited in Paris, London, Milan, New York and San Francisco. In late 1932, she moved back to New York and had her first solo exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery. One of the most important art dealers in the U.S., Levy hailed her as "the new light on the horizon of photography."
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| Untitled, Guerlain Parfumerie, 1930 |
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| Bird Cages, Paris, 1931-- this picture was highly praised by a New York critic in 1933 |
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| Untitled, (Grinning man), around 1932. This photo likely depicts Aziz Eloui Bey. Miller had met the Egyptian businessman in Paris in 1931; she married him three years later. |
Miller spent two years running a commercial studio in Depression-era New York, building up a clientele of celebrities and luxury brands. In May 1934, she reunited with Aziz Eloui Bey and on July 19, they got married. Miller closed her studio and left for Cairo. They lived in a lavish villa. Miller took Arabic and chemistry classes at the University of Cairo. In July 1935, during a trip to Jerusalem, she took up photography again after having stopped all work for nearly a year.
During the summer of 1937, Miller travelled to Paris and reconnected with the surrealists. At a costume ball, she met the English artist and art collector Roland Penrose who became her lover and invited her to vacation with some members of the surrealist group, first in Cornwall, England and then in Mougins, France along with Picasso. In June, 1938, Miller met up with Penrose in Athens. They spent the summer exploring Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania.
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| Roland Penrose, Four women asleep (Lee Miller, Amy Fidelin, Nusch Éluard and Leonora Carrington), Lambe Creek, Cornwall, 1937. |
In the autumn of 1938, Miller travelled around Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey with British diplomats, Bernard Burrows and Robin Fedden. Three of Miller's photographs were published in Fedden's book Syria: An Historical Appreciation.
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| From the top of the Great Pyramid, Gizeh, Egypt, 1938. Miller's photographs often propose new ways of looking at the world. Here the shadow of the iconic Great Pyramid of Giza intersects with the growing surrounding city. |
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Portrait of space, Al-Buwayeb, near Siwa, Egypt, 1937.
Very experimental compositions-frames within frames. |
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Untitled, Northern Syria near Turkish Border, 1938
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Unitled, (Funerary towers and Roman columns), Palmyre, Syria, around 1938. The Syria prints in the exhibit have never been shown before.
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| Untitled, Egypt, 1939 |
By 1939, Miller felt increasingly stifled by her life among Cairo high society, but art and photography offered a lifeline of creative freedom.
There was a section of the exhibit entitled Artists and Friends I, which showcased her activity as a portraitist. A number of these were from her time in New York, others from her 1937 travels with Roland Penrose as well as some later portraits during the war.
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| Joseph Cornell, Lee Miller Studios Inc., New York, around 1933 |
Miller had Cornell pose with one of his surrealist-inspired assemblages.
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| Pablo Picasso, Mougins, Alpes-Maritimes,1937. Beginning a lifelong friendship of artistic exchange, Miller and Picasso made several portraits of one another. |
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| E.L.T. Mesens, Max Ernst, Leonard Carrington and Paul Éluard, Lambe Creek, Cornwall, England, 1937 |
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| Roland Penrose with mumps, Downshire Hill, London, 1942 |
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| Colette, Paris, 1944-- Miller visited her old friend at home in Paris in the aftermath of Nazi occupation |
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| René Magritte with Loulou, Brussels, 1944 |
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| On the road, Romania, 1938. The photograph is centered on the unseeing eye of the ox. |
Miller finally left Egypt in 1939 to be with Roland Penrose in London and in the summer of 1939, just before war broke out, they travelled to the south of France.
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| Leonora Carrington, Saint-Martin-d'Ardèche, 1939. This portrait of surrealist painter Leonora Carrington was taken just weeks before the outbreak of the war. Not long after, Carrington experienced a devastating mental health crisis following the arrest of her partner, Max Ernst. |
Arriving at British Vogue in late 1939, Miller had to prove herself as a fashion photographer after years away from magazine work. Behind the scenes, Condé Nast instructed Vogue editors to give Miller time to experiment, stressing his faith in her "intelligence and industry".
There was a section of the exhibit was entitled Grim Glory: Britain at War. Miller had refused to retreat to the U.S. and remained in London during the war. She said: "Years ago I fought and struggled to live in Europe-chose my friends in these countries-and their way of living-so I can't leave now just because there isn't enough butter to go round.' German bombs fell on London between September 1940 and May 1941, killing almost 30,000 people and leaving one in six homeless. Amid the tragedy of the Blitz, a surreal atmosphere emanated from the city in ruins.
Between two assignments for British Vogue, Miller took photographs of the wreckage and ruins in London. She created poetic images that explored the incongruity of the bomb sites. Many of her Blitz photographs were published as a book: Grim Glory: Picture of Britain Under Fire (1941). The book was highly popular on both sides of the Atlantic. At least 10 of her photographs were also included in Britain at War, an influential exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Miller also documented womens' lives during war, celebrating their strength and vital contributions to the war effort.
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| Dolphin Square, London, 1940 |
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| Revenge on culture, London, 1940---The nude female torso is a motif in many surrealist artworks. The title connects the violence enacted on the sculpture with the broader Nazi attack on cultural freedoms. Modern art, termed "degenerate" by the Nazis, was a particular target. After the Nazi invasion of France in 1940, Miller wrote her brother: "I'd fight on a barricade so that they could continue painting so-called 'degenerate art.' |
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| Remington silent, London, 1940-- an abstract representation of the war's destructive energy |
Miller met American Life magazine photojournalist David E. Scherman in London in 1941. They became so close that he moved into the home Miller shared with her partner, Roland Penrose.
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David E. Scherman dressed for war, London, 1942-- with a surrealist feel for the bizarre, the image suggests a wartime merging of man and machine and at the same time
presents the camera as a weapon of war. |
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| Martha Gellhorn, 1944, London. On Gellhorn's desk are photographs of her husband, Ernest Hemingway. Gellhorn covered the Spanish Civil War for Colliers. She was the only woman present on Omaha Beach on D-day. Like Miller, she was among the very few journalists to enter the concentration camp at Dachau in May 1945. |
There was another section of the exhibit entitled: Here is Vogue in spite of all!! As a US citizen, Miller was ineligible for war work in the UK, but she offered her services to British Vogue. Before long, with more established figures tied up, she was the magazine's leading photographer. Working with increasing restricted resources and with clothes under rationing, Miller's creative imagination kicked in and many of her fashion photographs draw on surrealist strategies. The British government viewed women's magazines as crucial to morale. Under editor Audrey Withers, Vogue encouraged women to fill roles in the workforce and to embrace clothing restrictions as part of the war effort. When its Bond Street offices were bombed in September 1940, Vogue put "Here is Vogue in spite of all" above Miller's photograph of the damage. In private, Miller expressed her frustration at not being closer to the front lines.
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| Fire Masks, Downshire Hill, London, 1941. Wearing plain wartime fashions, two models perch on newspapers outside the bomb shelter in Miller's Hampstead garden. |
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| American dress, Holborn Viaduct, London |
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| Model with lightbulb, Vogue Studio, London, around 1943. |
In 1942, encouraged by Scherman, Miller applied for accreditation as an American forces war correspondent for Vogue, which she obtained on December 30. Like other woman journalists, she faced barriers in accessing the war zone. It was only in summer 1944, after D-Day, that she was finally allowed close to battle. She stayed on the continent until early 1946. Her reports covered France, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Hungary and Romania. In the words of David E. Scherman, with whom she lived and worked with for much of this period, Miller 'became a G.I." She produced an avalanche of Vogue stories which combined powerful photography with vivid first-person eases. With almost no experience as a writer, she found herself a fearless and natural journalist with a knack for being first on the scene.
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| View of the landing craft, Normandy Beach, 1944 |
As a woman journalist in summer 1944, Miller was officially restricted to non-combat areas, after they had been liberated. But due to a military intelligence error, she was sent to Saint-Malo while it was still a live battleground. The only photographer within the line of fire for several days, she produced extensive coverage.
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| Artillery spotters, Saint-Malo, Bretagne, 1944 |
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| Fall of the citadel: Aerial bombardment, Saint-Malo, 1944. This image was stopped by military censors. Unbeknownst to Miller, it shows an early use of a secret new weapon-napalm! |
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| Debris on pavement (Boot and ammunition), Saint-Malo, 1944 |
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| The deputy Bürgermeister's daughter (Regina Lisso), Leipzig Town Hall, Germany, 1945. In Leipzig's city hall, Miller photographed a Nazi official and his family who had died by suicide as US soldiers approached. |
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Suicided Volksstrum commander (Walter Dönicke), Leipzig Town Hall, 1945. The body lies amid symbols of the fallen regime. Smashed photographs of Nazi officials lie around him. A portrait of Hitler, with its face cut out is prepared next to him. Miller composed her version, to include a glimpse of the statue of Justice outside the window.
There was also a separate room of Miller's photographs of the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps. The exhibit asked that photographs not be taken in that room. They are very powerful photographs and as Miller did not have a zoom lens, they are taken at a very close range. Many are of the newly liberated prisoners and piles of dead bodies.
Miller entered Buchenwald concentration camp on April 16, 1945, soon after it had been liberated. Two weeks later she visited Dachau, a concentration camp near Munich whose survivors had been freed the previous day. Miller's experiences in the concentration camps marked her forever. In her cable to her editor in London, she wrote: "I IMPLORE YOU TO BELIEVE THAT THIS IS TRUE."
After Dachau, Miller travelled to Munich with David E. Scherman. On arrival, they discovered that the U.S. forces had requisitioned Adolf Hitler's private apartment. She became aware of the symbolic power of taking pictures of her and Scherman- a Jewish man- washing away the dirt of Dachau in Hitler's bathtub. They arranged every detail for its symbolic meaning: Hitler's portrait on the bathtub, the classical statuette and Miller's filthy boots on the bathmat. As Miller knew, the Nazi's had murdered huge numbers in gas chambers disguised as shower rooms, lending the setting a grim significance. Hitler's suicide was announced the same day. Her self-portrait was published thumbnail-size in the last pages of a report in British Vogue, and never again in her lifetime.
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| Lee Miller in Hitler's bathtub, Munich, 1945 |
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| Two German women sitting on a park bench surrounded by destroyed buildings, Cologne, Germany, 1945 |
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| French Surrealists liberated, Boris Kochno, unknown, Lise DeHarme, Elsa Triolet, unknown, Christian Bérard, Nusch Éluard, Dora Mara, Paris, 1944 |
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| Execution of László Bárdossy, fascist ex-Prime Minister of Hungary, Budapest, 1946 |
There was a display of Lee Miller's official American war correspondent uniform.
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| Her uniform |
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| David E. Scherman, Lee Miller, Vogue Studio, 1943 |
Miller was deeply affected by the war and suffered from post-traumatic stress and addiction. Miller married Penrose in 1947 and gave birth to their son, Antony. The last section of the exhibition entitled: Artists and Friends II is devoted to her life at Farleys Farm House ( a 200 acre farm in Chiddingly, East Sussex, England), with Roland Penrose and their son Antony (born 1947). At first, she continued her reported for Vogue but gradually stopped doing commercial work. She kept making portraits of her entourage. Farleys House became an important meeting place for artistic exchanges during which Miller immersed herself in numerous culinary experiments. Miller had taken classes in 1957at the Cordon Bleu for six months. She went on to become a renowned gourmet cook, who won numerous competitions.
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| Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning, Oak Creek Canyon, Arizona, 1946. Miller and Penrose travelled to Arizona to visit their old friend Max Ernst and his new partner, the painter Dorothea Tanning. The double portrait has never been exhibited before. Tanning gazes at her unfinished painting while Ernst stares into the desert landscape. |
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| Dora Maar, Paris, around 1956. |
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| Henry Moore with his sculpture "Mother and Child", Farleys House, Chiddingly, UK, 1953 |
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Pablo Picasso and Antony Penrose with [the sculpture] "La Femme à la clé",
Vallauris, Alpes Maritimes, 1954. |
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| Joan Miró at the zoo, London, 1964. |
Miller died of pancreatic cancer at Farleys Farm on July 21, 1977. The true extent of her work was only discovered after her death. The roughly 60,000 negatives, prints, and journals uncovered in the family attic now form the basis of the Lee Miller Archives, still housed at Farleys House today.
There was one last picture of Lee Miller blown up on an entire wall, taken by an unknown photographer, seen staging herself on the steps of the Musée d'art Moderne- at the site of the present-day entrance, while taking photographs on assignment for the latest creations by fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli. In January 1945, upon her return to Paris, Lee Miller captured the resurgence of life in Paris. She covered a number of fashion shows for Vogue.
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| Unknown photographer, Lee Miller with camera on Schiaparelli fashion assignment for Vogue, Paris 1945 |
There was a real camera placed in front of this large blow up of this photo on an entire wall.
It was a spectacular exhibition. Extremely well curated, it covered the breath of Miller's extraordinary life. I have always been a huge fan of Miller and have a number of books of her photographs. It was exciting to see so many new photographs amongst some of my favourites. The war photos and the many pictures of her artist friends both before and after the war were exceptional.
After the exhibit, we briefly dropped in on the largest painting in the world celebrating the discovery of electricity. In an entirely dedicated room, is The Spirit of Electricity, 1937 by Raoul Dufy. He used innovative techniques including an oil paint as transparent as watercolour, to produce this brilliant artwork of over 200 panels. It looks like a movie projected on a giant panoramic screen. It traces the legend of knowledge throughout the centuries and the harnessing of electricity.
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| A view of most of the painting |
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| Details of the scientists |
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| Marie Curie is the only woman portrayed in the group |
Our final brief stop was
Dance, by Henri Matisse, 1931-1933.
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| Dance. Half-god creatures from Greco-Roman mythology.. |
Exiting the museum was a spectacular view of the Eiffel Tower.
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| Eiffel Tower |
It was time for a very late lunch. We stopped at La Galleria.
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| We shared a very good salad at La Galliera restaurant |
We stopped at one of our favourites patisseries- Cyril Lignac (just beside the restaurant)
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| Gorgeous patisserie-- lots of reflections though |
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| Pyramid of chocolate bears. They also sold the chocolate bears individually. |
We stopped in at the nearby Agne b clothing store. Very peaceful and great staff.
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| Alain making a purchase. |
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| His new Tshirt-- Agnes b photo |
We walked towards the Metro, but decided to have a drink first at a café with a view of the wonderful apartments in the 16th arrondissement.
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| At Le Petit Chaillot |
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| With our limoncello and Hugo Spritzes |
We eventually headed back to the apartment and Chef Alain made a lovely fish dinner.
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Saturday May 30, was another very hot day- high of 33C. Our host had sent us a note, reminding us of the big soccer European Champions final game taking place in Budapest between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal. He told us to be careful in the streets after the game.
We decided to be flâneurs (wanderers) en Paris. We were taking it easy after a few very tiring days. We walked to Radio Days, a coffee shop Alain had read about in the 10th arrondissement. They have a selection of specialty coffee beans and also delicious pastries, including a vegan marble cake with cardamon. We sat outside and had an excellent cup of coffee with our pastry.
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| Alain, radio-boy, outside Radio Days |
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| Inside- very nice server from Iran, who has relatives in Toronto |
As we wandered around Paris we noticed tons of folks dressed in PSG gear, getting ready for the game which was started at 18:00 h. Many people were making reservations in their favourite bars to watch the games with their friends.
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| Getting set for the game. |
We took the Metro to the 6th- Saint Germain to pick up some items from my "to do" Paris list.
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| Outside Brémond fils- where I get my favourite hand cream, tea towels, and great olive oils. |
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| Inside of store |
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| Honeys and other treats |
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| Danton on Saint Germain |
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| Sign for Reservations for the Campions Cup |
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| We stopped at Copains bakery and picked up some delicious vegan treats (about half the choices) |
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| Cinnamon buns and at the back- apple treats |
Then a stop at one of the first Le Labo stores, where one can get their perfumes in small sizes (not available in North America). They make the perfume on site.
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| Lots of choice |
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| Great store and service. |
We wandered some more and stopped at a very small handbag story with origami shaped bags which caught my eye.
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| Outside Nada |
The woman who makes the bags was there. They are all made of upcycled materials-- from tires, upholstery, etc. She started the business and her husband is now involved. I got a very small bag. The origami shapes and materials were very innovative.
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| The designer |
Nearby, we noticed a plaque on the building. It noted that Leonora Carrington (1917-2011) and Max Ernst (1891-1976) had lived in this building in 1937. Of course, we had just seen the photos Lee Miller had taken of them.
There were a number of plaques installed in Paris to celebrate 100 years of surrealism.
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| 12 Rue Jacob (6e) where Carrington and Ernst lived in 1937. |
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| We went into the courtyard and saw the stairs to the apartments |
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| Statue de Prométhée by Ossip Zadkine (1890-1967) on place Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 1955-56. |
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| Alain crossing the street at Place Sartre-Beauvoir- near Les Deux Magots cafê. |
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| One of our favourite chocolate stores and one of the oldest in Paris-- À la Mère de Famille (since 1761) |
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| They always give us a chocolate treat when we buy something |
We stopped for a few moments at the famous Hotel Lutetia. The plaque notes that from April to August 1945, the hotel was turned into a centre for refugees from concentration camps. The plaque was put up in May 1985, the 40th anniversary of the liberation of the camps.
We later saw picture of the fireworks and the cars set on fire near the Arc de Triomphe. Craziness, especially when the French team were the winners. It was neat however, to capture the more peaceful celebration on our Street.
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