A love story and love for photography: Lee Miller and Man Ray on show in Venice

Two famous moments in the life of Lee Miller. The first in the spring of 1929: in a café on the Left Bank in Paris, she managed to convince Man Ray to give her photography lessons; the second at the end of the Second World War: Miller was one of the five reporters accredited by Vogue to accompany the American army, she also told of the liberation of the concentration camps of Buchenwald and Dachau.

Both moments will be on display until April 1, 2023 a Palazzo Franchetti in Venice with Lee Miller Man Ray. Fashion, love, war. 140 shots, video documents and various art objects that tell of a love story, but above all of a creative partnership.

To reiterate, Miller wasn’t just Man Ray’s muse. Of course, the American artist has portrayed her several times, but in the dark room the two talked, compared each other, so much so that it was almost impossible (even for the most expert of critics) to sign the photographs once they were developed.

It is the example Lee Miller’s Neck circa 1930, shot on display, a negative that Man Ray had initially rejected, she reworked it by making it her own. She models casually: while she was about to be run over on the streets of Manhattan, the then editor of Condé Nast saves her and with an illustration by Georges Lepape puts it on the cover of Vogue. But her role was not that “I’d rather take a picture than be a picture,” she said. And in Venice this is what we are talking about: the shots of war, love and solarization. Technique born from Miller and Ray, together.

Lee Miller – Man Ray. Fashion, Love, War
Palazzo Franchetti, CMS. Culture

Edited by Victoria Noel-Jhonson

Under the patronage of town of Venice

Main Sponsor Unipol Group
Until April 10, 2023