A Surreal Landscape of Devastation: An Analysis of Lee Miller’s Grim Glory Photographs of the London Blitz (original) (raw)
Related papers
Aesthetics of War: the Artistic Representation of War in Lee Miller’s WWII Photographs
Susan Sontag in her 2003 book Regarding the Pain of Others suggests that images of war and destruction can be interpreted as aesthetic objects--that there is “a beauty in ruins”. A landscape of war is still a landscape. A painting depicting war is still a piece of art. Lee Miller’s photographs taken during the latter years of World War Two demonstrate this argument--that images of war can be justified as being aesthetic artefacts through the photographer’s creative use composition and form and by considering the image within the context of the Surrealist Andre Breton’s theory of “convulsive beauty”, his idea that anything can be deemed beautiful even the most disturbing or horrific of subjects. A scene of death and destruction can, therefore, be transformed into something beautiful, something aesthetic by convulsing it into its apparent opposite. This paper will discuss how Miller’s war photographs can be interpreted as aesthetic by analysing how Miller uses her knowledge of art--through the creative use of composition and form and the application of Bretonian Surrealism--and by arguing that a war photograph often involves a hybrid-aesthetic, justified by its interpretation as a combination of art and historical documentation. Miller’s photographs taken at the Buchenwald and Dachau concentration camps, therefore, not only inform and act as crucial documentary evidence that the holocaust existed, they also show scenes photographed with a great sensitivity, a need to inform, technical excellence and the presence of a “surrealist eye”.
Lee Miller, Photography, Surrealism and the Second World War - From Vogue to Dachau
2017
Lee Miller (1907-1977) was an American-born Surrealist and war photographer who, through her role as a model for Vogue magazine, became the apprentice of Man Ray in Paris and later one of the few women war correspondents to cover the Second World War from the frontline. Her comprehensive understanding of art enabled her to photograph vivid representations of Europe at war—the changing gender roles of women in war work, the destruction caused by enemy fire during the London Blitz, the horrors of the concentration camps—that embraced and adapted the principles and methods of Surrealism. This monograph examines how Miller’s war photographs can be interpreted as ‘surreal documentary’ combining a surrealist sensibility with a need to inform. Each chapter contains a close analysis of specific photographs in a generally chronological study with a thematic focus, using comparisons with other photographers, documentary artists, and Surrealists, such as Margaret Bourke-White, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, George Rodger, Cecil Beaton, Bill Brandt, Henry Moore, Humphrey Jennings and Man Ray. In addition, Miller’s photographs are explored through André Breton’s theory of ‘convulsive beauty’—his credence that any subject, no matter how horrible, may be interpreted as art—and his notion of the ‘marvellous’.
Lee Miller’s photographs of the liberation of the concentration camps taken at Dachau and Buchenwald in April 1945 not only stand as historical records of the Holocaust, documenting the horrors and atrocities of the Second World War, they also contain a sense of aestheticism that makes them comparable to the war art of artists such as Pablo Picasso, Max Beckmann, and George Grosz. Indeed, many of Miller’s photographs of Dachau and Buchenwald can be equated to the war art produced during and after the First World War, including the work of the Dadaists and Surrealists, thus demonstrating that images of war may be interpreted as aesthetically significant as well as historically informative.
BELIEVE IT! Lee Miller's Second World War Phototgraphs as 'Modern Memorials'
Journal of War and Culture Studies, 2018
During the Second World War, the world’s press faced the difficult task of recording the horrific scenes of conflict, death and destruction they had witnessed across Europe. Often these scenes were so incredulous that many reporters found it impossible to articulate what they had seen into words and turned to photographers to translate the horrors into visual images. The war photograph, therefore, took on the crucial role not only of historical document, but also as a means to inform, provoke, shock and remind. In this essay, I will discuss how the American Surrealist and war correspondent Lee Miller recorded horrors of the Second World War, and the concentration camps at Dachau and Buchenwald, in particular. Through the Surrealist practice of ‘fragmentation’ she was able to use her knowledge of art to break down, or ‘fragment’, scenes of death and destruction into smaller, digestible chunks for the readers of Vogue magazine on both sides of the Atlantic. As hybrids of art and historical documentation, Miller’s concentration camp photographs become ‘modern memorials’ to the victims of war and the Holocaust.
Representing the Holocaust: Lee Miller’s Concentration Camp Photographs as ‘Modern Memorials’
2015
On 8 May 1945 American war photographer, Lee Miller, sent a telegraph to the editor of Vogue magazine, Audrey Withers, along with a collection of negatives that she had taken at the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau, demanding “I IMPLORE YOU TO BELIEVE THIS IS TRUE!” Through these photographs she also appealed to Vogue’s readers, particularly in the United States, to be aware of, if not totally comprehend, the atrocities that had been committed by the Nazis. Her photographs, she hoped, would act as visual evidence by placing the readers directly in view of those horrors in an attempt to provoke as well as inform. In this paper I will explore how Miller, once the muse and apprentice of the Surrealist artist Man Ray, approached the Holocaust in order to visualise the inconceivable. By using her ‘surrealist eye’ she was able to create aesthetic representations of one of the most horrific periods in human history. Miller’s images not only have great worth as historical documents, they also give expression to testimony, experience and memory of the Holocaust. In addition, I will consider the work of theorists and writers such as John Berger, Susan Sontag and Walter Lippman and their views regarding the visual representation of the Holocaust in order to explore how photographers, like Miller, were able to use their artistic skills to effectively frame the horror as a form of ‘modern memorial’ for future generations.
When Reality Was Surreal: Lee Miller's World War II War Correspondence for Vogue
2003
During World War II, Lee Miller was an accredited war correspondent for Vogue magazine. Miller was trained as a surrealist photographer by Man Ray, and her wartime work, both photographic and written, is indicative of a combination of journalism and surrealism. This thesis examines Lee Miller’s war correspondence within the context of Vogue magazine, establishing parallels between the photographs and writing to determine how surrealism informs it stylistically and ideologically. Using surrealist techniques of juxtaposition and an unmanipulated photographic style, and the surrealist concepts of the Marvelous and Convulsive Beauty, Miller presented the war as a surreality, or a surreal reality. This study concludes by using Miller’s approach to suggest a new concept of journalistic practice: surrealist journalism.
2012
The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. Contents List of Figures p. 6 Postwar Recovery, 1945-49 p. 82 2.1 Remembrance, Romanticism and Reinvention: Diverging Discourses and Converging Concerns in British Ruin Photobooks p. 86 2.2 Claiming Ownership of Loss and Re-appropriating Ruins: Ruin Photobooks in Normandy and Surrealism in Paris p. 96 2.3 Destroyed Cities Recalled, a Divided Nation Pictured: Cologne, Dresden and wie es war photobooks in Germany p.109 2.4 Conclusion: Ruin Photography & the Europeanisation of the Reconstruction Debate p.130