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A major exhibition of the surrealist photographer Lee Miller, reviewed by Stephen Cragg KC
Tate Britain’s massive exhibition following the life and work of Lee Miller reveals one of the most remarkable women of the 20th century.
It is hard to believe that one life could encompass so much. Miller started as a photographic model in New York, before essentially blagging a job as Man Ray’s assistant in France in the 1930s. She hung out with and photographed the surrealists and spent so much time with Picasso that he was her most photographed subject. She married an Egyptian man and her pictures of the middle-eastern barren landscapes in the late 1930s show a sensitivity to light, form and culture.
She then became a fashion photographer for Vogue magazine, morphed into a photographer of the Blitz in London (with both a surrealist and a fashionista eye) and then, incredibly, became a war photographer and correspondent as the Allies made their way across Europe in 1945. All these parts of her life are painstakingly documented in the exhibition, but the culmination of the show is Miller’s haunting images from the liberation of Europe. She was one of the first journalists into the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Dachau, and photographs from these sites confront viewers with the horror of Nazi atrocities. There is nothing sanitised about these works; we see the deprivation and the suffering that Miller saw.
She was then photographed in Hitler’s bath in his Munich apartment, her still muddy Dachau boots visible and a portrait of the Führer on the bath edge – a deliberate violation of the Führer’s privacy, displayed with grim defiance and dark humour.
No wonder this exhibition was packed on a Sunday afternoon, leading to one of the downsides to the show: many of the 250 photographs on show are small, black and white prints and were difficult to get close to – go on a Monday morning if you can!
It has been said that those who recorded the horrors of the concentration camps were not able to take on board the weight of what they saw, and this may have been the case for Miller – she spent the later years of her life after the war avoiding commissions and becoming almost a recluse, perhaps giving an insight to her own observation that her success was based on ‘getting out on a damn limb and sawing it off behind you’.
Miller achieved what might well be impossible to do in the 21st century of specialisms, reinventing herself every few years as something new in photography, journalism, art and lifestyle, with the camera as the constant to interrogate and challenge the world.
At Tate Britain until 15 February 2026
Tate Britain’s massive exhibition following the life and work of Lee Miller reveals one of the most remarkable women of the 20th century.
It is hard to believe that one life could encompass so much. Miller started as a photographic model in New York, before essentially blagging a job as Man Ray’s assistant in France in the 1930s. She hung out with and photographed the surrealists and spent so much time with Picasso that he was her most photographed subject. She married an Egyptian man and her pictures of the middle-eastern barren landscapes in the late 1930s show a sensitivity to light, form and culture.
She then became a fashion photographer for Vogue magazine, morphed into a photographer of the Blitz in London (with both a surrealist and a fashionista eye) and then, incredibly, became a war photographer and correspondent as the Allies made their way across Europe in 1945. All these parts of her life are painstakingly documented in the exhibition, but the culmination of the show is Miller’s haunting images from the liberation of Europe. She was one of the first journalists into the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Dachau, and photographs from these sites confront viewers with the horror of Nazi atrocities. There is nothing sanitised about these works; we see the deprivation and the suffering that Miller saw.
She was then photographed in Hitler’s bath in his Munich apartment, her still muddy Dachau boots visible and a portrait of the Führer on the bath edge – a deliberate violation of the Führer’s privacy, displayed with grim defiance and dark humour.
No wonder this exhibition was packed on a Sunday afternoon, leading to one of the downsides to the show: many of the 250 photographs on show are small, black and white prints and were difficult to get close to – go on a Monday morning if you can!
It has been said that those who recorded the horrors of the concentration camps were not able to take on board the weight of what they saw, and this may have been the case for Miller – she spent the later years of her life after the war avoiding commissions and becoming almost a recluse, perhaps giving an insight to her own observation that her success was based on ‘getting out on a damn limb and sawing it off behind you’.
Miller achieved what might well be impossible to do in the 21st century of specialisms, reinventing herself every few years as something new in photography, journalism, art and lifestyle, with the camera as the constant to interrogate and challenge the world.
At Tate Britain until 15 February 2026
A major exhibition of the surrealist photographer Lee Miller, reviewed by Stephen Cragg KC
Far-ranging month for the Chair of the Bar
Endometriosis Awareness North, a charity raising awareness of endometriosis and supporting those affected across the North of England, has received a £500 boost from AlphaBiolabs via the company’s Giving Back initiative
Marie Law, Director of Toxicology at AlphaBiolabs, examines the most recent data on alcohol misuse in the UK, and the implications for alcohol testing in family proceedings
Clement Cowley, Partner at The Penny Group, explains how tailored financial planning can help barristers take control of their finances and plan with confidence
Marie Law, Director of Toxicology at AlphaBiolabs
A £500 donation from AlphaBiolabs has been made to the leading UK charity tackling international parental child abduction and the movement of children across international borders
Seeing the full picture – Baljit Ubhey OBE outlines the CPS action plan to tackle violence against women and girls, offering insights directly relevant to courtroom practice
Heritage as an anchor and a compass, finding our common humanity and embracing the power of the outsider – Melina Antoniadis’s lessons learnt
Is the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office process fit for purpose? Women barristers’ experiences of bullying are not being reported or, if they are, they are not making it through the system, says Tana Adkin KC
Review by Daniel Barnett
Chair of the Bar reports back
