Lee Miller, a woman's war

Abstract

Lee Miller photographed innumerable women during her career, first as a fashion photographer and then as a journalist during the Second World War, documenting the social consequences of the conflict, particularly the impact of the war on women across Europe. Her work as a war photographer is perhaps that for which she is best remembered; in fact, she was among the 20th century's most important photographers on the subject. Published to coincide with an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, Lee Miller: A Womans War tells the story beyond the battlefields of the Second World War by way of Miller's extraordinary photographs of the women whose lives were affected. Introductions by Hilary Roberts and Antony Penrose, Lee Miller's son, precede Miller's work, which is divided into chronological chapters. Miller's photographs, many previously unpublished, are accompanied by extended captions that place the images within the context of women's roles within the landscape of war.

Contents

Introduction: Lee Miller: the ubiquitous image -- Lee Miller: a woman's war -- Women before the Second World War -- Women in wartime Britain, 1939-1944 -- Women in wartime Europe, 1944-1945 -- Women and the aftermath of war -- Chronology.