This is a photograph of Lee Miller in Hitler’s bathtub in his apartment, coincidentally being the same day Hitler took his own life. Miller admitted that after taking this picture, she took a bath and slept in Hitler’s bed.
Miller was a model who quit to pursue a career in photojournalism as a war photographer for Vogue as WWII broke out. She utilized surrealism photography of the war with the aim of providing context to events that were occurring.
Miller’s early life was marked by a series of unfortunate events. At the tender age of seven, she was sexually assaulted by a family friend, which resulted in her contracting gonorrhea. This traumatic experience required years of painful treatments and had a profound impact on her life. Despite these hardships, Miller’s resilience and determination shone through. She struggled academically, being expelled from almost every school she attended, but this did not deter her from pursuing her passion for art.
In her late teens, Miller moved to Paris to study stage lighting and costume design. Upon returning to New York, she joined an experimental drama program at Vassar College, but soon found her calling in the Art Students League of New York, where she studied life drawing and painting. Her modeling career began quite serendipitously when she was saved from an oncoming car by none other than Condé Nast, the publisher of Vogue. However, her modeling career was cut short when a photograph of her was used in a Kotex advertisement without her consent.
During World War II, Miller became an accredited war correspondent for Vogue, making her the first female photojournalist to follow the 83rd Infantry Division of the U.S. Army as it advanced on the front lines. Her photographs and reports were published in Vogue between 1944 and 1945. Despite the grim realities of war, Miller’s work was characterized by its surrealistic quality, providing a unique perspective on the events of the time.
