The Art of Lee Miller

<p>In 2004 Haworth-Booth was asked to guest curate a centenary exhibition and accompanying publication of the art of Lee Miller to take place at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 2007. Anthony Penrose, the son of Lee Miller, was instrumental in this commission.</p>

<p>Research for the project began with a literature review and a systematic examination of archive holding in a range of public and private collections across the world including the Lee Miller Archives in Sussex, the Vogue Archive in London, the May Ray Archive in Paris and the New York Public Library. Interviews with those who worked with Miller such as Alex Kroll, editor of Vogue in the 1940s were undertaken and brought fresh insights.</p>

<p>The resulting exhibition and book bring together the majority of the key vintage prints for the first time plus works never before exhibited including drawings and collages. A key work <b>Portrait of Space</b> was reconstructed from an analysis of the surviving negatives.</p>

<p>Two errors made by previous scholars unfamiliar with the history of photography were corrected, and Millers work for text and image publications including international editions of Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar was assessed for the first time.</p>

<p>The role of Lee Miller as muse, model, actress, artist, commercial photographer, documentary photographer, war-reporter and writer, including her final essay on film, were documented and analysed.</p>

<p>A Symposium co-organised with Becky Conekin (London College of Fashion) took place 07/12/07 in which Haworth-Booth was Chair and one of the presenters. Le sang d’un poète by Jean Cocteau was screened, and The Angel and the Fiend by Anthony Penrose was performed.</p>

<p>The exhibition toured to Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2008.</p>

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