Lee Miller. Man Ray by Victoria Noel-Johnson

Lee Miller. Man Ray by Victoria Noel-Johnson

Lee Miller not only Man Ray's muse, but above all a professional in her own right

Model, photographer, muse, the first female war correspondent to report the horrors of the concentration camps liberated by American troops, and 20th-century icon. Lee Miller was all this and much more. She went through life with passion and determination and life repaid her with love and friends, but also with pain and posthumous, or at least tardy, acknowledgement.

Through approximately 140 photographs by Lee Miller and Man Ray, some objects d'art, and video documents loaned by Lee Miller Archives and Fondazi one Marconi, this book intends to do justice to this woman as beautiful as she was clever and talented, taking her out of Man Ray's overpowering shadow. It will reveal a deep but complicated relationship more objectively (Man Ray was first her teacher, then lover, and in the end friend), and document the effect they both had on each other and how it inspired their work.

Published on the occasion of the exhibition in Venice, the volume features texts by the curator, Ami Bouhassane (Miller's grand-daughter), and Anthony Pen rose (Miller's son). Moreover it includes portraits by Man Ray of friends and important protagonists of the period (Max Ernst, Pablo Picasso, Giorgio de Chirico, Jean Cocteau, Salvador Dalí), as well as surrealist shots of Lee Miller in which she seeks to investigate and reveal her soul and torments.

Joanne 'Bob' Whalley is Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance at Falmouth University, UK. Lee Miller is Associate Professor in Theatre and Performance at Plymouth University, UK. They completed the first joint practice-as-research PhD to be undertaken within a UK arts discipline in 2004. Lee is a qualified yoga teacher, and Bob is a licensed acupuncturist. They have published widely in books including Kershaw and Nicholson Eds. Research Methods in Theatre and Performance (2011) and journals including Performance Research and Research in Drama Education.