Lee Miller & MI5

[MrBern]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/why-did-mi5-spy-on-glamourous-vogue-photographer-lee-miller-1636147.html

Today a new and no less remarkable chapter in Miller's life will be uncovered: the American-born photographer, who lived in Britain during and after the Second World War, was placed under minute surveillance by MI5 even as she went about documenting some of war's worst horrors, according to intelligence reports released by the National Archive.

In justifying their spying, a Special Branch report written in 1941 concluded that the beautiful photographer, who once had an affair with the surrealist painter Man Ray, was an "eccentric" who indulged in "queer food and queer clothes" and needed to be watched carefully.

That MI5 kept tabs on Miller reveals how even those who were perceived to have been true patriots during the Second World War were deemed suspicious as fear of Communism gripped the West in the post-war era.

Professor Chris Andrew, the official historian of MI5, said yesterday: "What is not sufficiently realised is that her career was absolutely unique in British history. There had never been anybody like her before, there's no reason to think there will be anyone like her again. She was extremely talented, she was extremely beautiful."

 

[HadleyH]

everytime lee miller appears in here

fftopic:


I know she was more than just a pretty face, but personally when i think of her, in my mind she will always be Man Ray's surrealist muse of the late 20s and early 30s, not the later WW2 war correspondent ... please forgive me! I had to get it out of my chest! lol [huh]

 

[MissQueenie]

Wow, great post Mr. B. She led a remarkable life and her war photography is no exception.

"Dead SS Guard floating in canal
Dachau"

"Ruins of Old St. Malo, France
In a lull during the siege, civilians and a cat come out for air amidst the ruins of their homes in the old part of the town."

 

[HadleyH]

Wow!

... She led a remarkable life ...

Yes she certainly did.

Here she is frolicking in Hitler's bath, after the fall of Berlin in 1945.
[Photo by David E. Scherman]

 

[MrBern]

self portrait `32

in uniform for Vogue

How many photogs could make a suicide look glamorous?

 

[Carlisle Blues]

She truly suffered for her "art". Having to endure PTSD after the war is no surprise.

A tortuous living hell.

Her contribution to her craft is immeasurable. However, her contribution to having woman being considered equal has been severely overlooked.