lee miller

“Lee Miller and Pablo Picasso—Liberation of Paris,” 1944.
“The Suicided Burgermeister’s Daughter,” Leipzig, Germany, 1945.

“Women with Fire Masks,” Downshire Hill, London, 1941.

“Picnic: Nusch and Paul Éluard, Roland Penrose, Man Ray, and Ady Fidelin,” Île Sainte-Marguerite, Cannes, France, 1937.

“Portrait of Space,” near Siwa, Egypt, 1937.

Lee Miller is the sort of woman who makes you ask, "And what have I done with my life?" Well, that's what I think whenever I see her photos from the time she worked as a photojournalist during WWII. Recently The New Yorker ran an article on Lee Miller to coincide with an exhibition currently on at the Philadelphia Museum of Art called The Art of Lee Miller. Here are some more reasons why she rocks.

Because she had looks and chose not to let them get in her way.
Because she wouldn't take no from photographer Man Ray when she arrived in Paris insisting she was going to be his student.
Because she established her own photo studio in New York.
Because she threw caution to the wind, ditching her photo studio, to marry an Egyptian and lived in Cairo.
Because she shrugged off the pleas of family and friends to leave London during its bombing in WWII and became a photojournalist and war correspondent.
Because her home during the 1950s and 60s was a magnet for the likes of Man Ray, Picasso, Henry Moore and Max Ernst.
Because her life was far from boring.

Images courtesy of The New Yorker and the Lee Miller Archive.