The Lives of Lee Miller by Antony PenroseMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Elizabeth "Lee" Miller. She was a former model turned photographer. Not many know about her; another woman almost forgotten to history.
I picked this book up to learn more about her after seeing the movie "Lee" with Kate Winslet.
Lee had a harder upbringing; she was raped at 7 and got a STI and her mother had to give her a dichloride Mercury solution via douche for a month to treat (era before antibiotics). She also posed for her father so he could take pictures.
She had a hard time staying in one place, always wanted to be on the move, to travel. She had many interesting friends (like Picasso). She was able to parlay her love of photography into a career. She was in London during the Blitz. She took pictures during WWII for Vogue. She was one of the first people to see and photograph liberated Paris and later Dachau. Her most known photograph is her in the bathtub of Hitler's Munich apartment. She had just come from Dachau (if you look at the picture, there is dirt/ash from her boots on the bathmat).
I wonder how much of the issues she had with relationships were related to her childhood assault. She didn't have the best relationship with her son either. Lee was such an interesting person, flaws and all.
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