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Man Ray
Lee Miller
1930 (ca)
Gelatin silver print
23.2 x 17.9 cm (9 1/8 x 7 ins)
Sotheby's - London
Photographs, 23 May 2015, Lot: 55
LL/60091
Having made her name of a fashion model in America, Lee Miller arrived in Paris in the late 1920s, determined to become a photographer. She became Man Ray’s apprentice and from 1929 to 1932 was his muse, companion and artistic collaborator.Together they explored the possibilities of solarisation photography (discovered by chance in the darkroom when a mouse ran over her foot and she accidently switched on the lights). Lee’s captivating beauty inspired some of Man Ray's most famous photographs and paintings during the three years they were together. Lee soon become known as an accomplished photographer in her own right, setting up her own studio to do portraits and fashion work. A free spirit and an independent, modern woman, Lee Miller split from Man Ray and left for New York in December 1932. Around this time, Man Ray wrote to her: “You are so young and beautiful and free, and I hate myself for trying to cramp that in you which I admire most.” (quoted in Carolyn Burke, Lee Miller, A Life, New York, 2005, p. 89).
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