Lee Miller: Through a Surrealist Eye

Lee Miller: Through a Surrealist Eye

Lee Miller is increasingly championed for her Surrealism-inspired photographs. Her images of Paris during the late-1920s and early 1930s when she was the muse and lover of Man Ray, her unique portraits of a desert landscape taken in and around Egypt in the 1930s, and her witty yet poignant and often disturbing images taken during the Second World War and its aftermath, are often discussed. Yet, while popularity in Miller’s complex life and photographic work is rapidly growing, especially with the release of the new Kate Winslet biopic LEE, her true worth as a Surrealist artist in her own right remains open to further scholarly exploration. Dr Lynn Hilditch has spent more than twenty years researching Miller's photography and this presentation will explore how Miller was not simply a muse, friend, and collaborator with the Surrealists, but one of the Twentieth Century’s most important and influential female Surrealist artists.

About the speaker:

Dr Lynn Hilditch is Academic Lead in Visual Arts and an art historian at Liverpool Hope University. She has a PhD from The University of Liverpool, which focused on Lee Miller’s war photography as 'surreal documentary', and a BA (Hons) and MA in American Studies. She has lectured in various aspects of the visual arts, predominantly American film, twentieth century art, and photography. Her research interests include the interpretation of war in art and photography and the socio-historical representation of gender in twentieth century popular culture. She has published widely on the photography of Lee Miller including Lee Miller, Photography, Surrealism and the Second World War (2017), “Believe It! Lee Miller’s Second World War Photographs as Modern Memorials” (Journal of War and Culture Studies, 2018), and her most recent edited book Lee Miller's Surrealist Eye: New Insights (2022).

Cost £3.00 per ticket (includes refreshments)
exhibition is open from 10:00 am - 5:00 pm, located on the first floor in gallery 5.

Host or Publisher Victoria Gallery and Museum