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Lee Miller At Tate Britain 2025
Major blockbuster retrospective for a 20th-century cultural icon
“I would rather take a photograph than be one.”
— Lee Miller
Lee Miller was both a photographer and a photograph.
Curators Hilary Floe and Saskia Flower spent five years researching the new Lee Miller (1907–1977) exhibition opening at Tate Britain on October 2nd and running until February 26th 2026.
The show — for me, it is more of a show than an exhibition (see photo above) — which brings together about 230 vintage and never-before-printed photographs presented alongside unseen archival material and ephemera. For the first time in one place, a light shines fully on the richness of her photographic legacy and exposes her unique eye in her photographs.
Lee Miller was born in 1907 in Poughkeepsie, New York State. She initially studied painting and stage design, but her time as a professional model inspired her to pursue photography. Tate Britain’s exhibition traces her journey from modelling in New York, where she was photographed by celebrated figures like Cecil Beaton and Edward Steichen, to working behind the lens in Paris, where she moved in 1929.
There she began working with Man Ray, combining surrealist ideas with technical…
