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BERLIN.- In cooperation with the Lee Miller Archives in Chiddingly (Sussex in South East England),

the galerie hiltawsky will present a solo exhibition of the American photographer Lee Miller (1907 – 1977) as of August 2nd 2012.

While Miller´s photographs, currently shown at dOCUMENTA (13) focus on her stay in Hitler´s Munich-based apartment in 1945, the collection of approx. 40 Lee Miller photographs at galerie hiltawsky gives a very good overview of her work and particularly features her portraiture from her early days in Paris during 1929 to 1932 through to her intimate and friendly shots of Picasso in the 1960’s.

This particular selection of images demonstrates Lee Miller´s informal approach to her subjects that seem to effortlessly capture the spirit of the person and sometimes the place as well. We have Picasso relaxing with Jean Cocteau or at his most playful in the Madura pottery with Gary Cooper or clowning with masks he has made. There is Marlene Dietrich, elegant and beautiful at the liberation of Paris, Colette, and Paul Éluard the surrealist poet with his wife Nusch. These faces are mostly Miller’s friends and show us how strongly connected to the worlds of art, fashion and Surrealism she truly was.

But apart from the strong portraiture, the exhibition also includes images from the time, Lee Miller spent in Egypt as well as images during her time as an accredited war correspondent with the US Armed Forces. Other photographs, which are not for sale, chart Miller´s coverage of the holocaust with some of the most devastating images to come out of the war and prove the artist´s versatility and her commitment to peace, freedom and justice.

„Lee Miller’s strongest attribute as a photographer was her Surrealist eye. She began to discover her own unique way of seeing whilst working with Man Ray in Paris from 1929 to 1932 and her personal style was her ability to find ‘Found Images’ which were her pictorial equivalent of the ‘Found object’. She would unerringly find an image that contained the marvellous in the everyday. The result is often humorous, sometimes shocking and always present at some level in her work, even in the combat photographs she took in WW2.“ (Quote: Antony Penrose)