Lee Miller’s big break began with a near-death experience. Miller was discovered at 19 by publishing scion Condé Nast himself when he pulled her out of the way of an oncoming car in Manhattan—then put her on the cover of Vogue. But Miller, born in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1907, was not content to be a muse for male photographers.

Instead, she moved to Paris, where she stepped behind the lens and studied with Surrealist photographer Man Ray, her mentor and lover. Miller mastered the technical aspects of photography quickly and distinguished herself among the few high-profile women photographers of the day by opening her own studio in the City of Light. There she took portraits of royalty, literary elites and even the pet lizard of a French socialite, who paid $100 for the image. Soon, Miller turned to photojournalism, ultimately producing some of the 20th century’s most groundbreaking images for the magazine whose cover she once graced.

During World War II, ignoring personal warnings from U.S. diplomats to return stateside, Miller embedded with the U.S. military. She chronicled the war across Europe, capturing unforgettable images: Londoners huddled in underground stations during the Blitz; bloodied patients at an Allied field hospital in Normandy. Miller pushed the bounds at Vogue: At a time when the 1940 bombing of Vogue’s London office didn’t merit a mention in its own pages, Miller ensured that her images went to press: She was among the first reporters to enter Dachau after its liberation and sent a message with her photos to her editor, “I IMPLORE YOU TO BELIEVE THIS IS TRUE.”

After the war, she settled on a Sussex farm, where artists like Pablo Picasso and Jean Dubuffet were regular visitors. Yet Miller struggled to find a sense of purpose and was largely forgotten until a trove of her photographs was rediscovered in her attic, several years after her death in 1977.

Now a feature film is helping rescue Miller from obscurity: In Lee, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2023, Kate Winslet (center) is magnetic in the title role, and was so inspired by Miller’s story that she wrote the foreword to Lee Miller: Photographs, a book by Miller’s son released this past October.

Gift

A new exhibition and catalogue reveal the social documentary of the overlooked photographer, who chronicled the working lives of women

November 28, 2023

LINCOLN — Joel Sartore’s ambitious project to photograph the approximately 20,000 endangered species on the planet hit a milestone recently with images of a sunflower-seed-sized beetle in south Florida.

The Miami tiger beetle — a relative of Nebraska’s Salt Creek tiger beetle — was the 15,000th species threatened with extinction photographed by the Lincoln-based, National Geographic photographer.

Sartore’s “Photo Ark” project, begun in 2006 in Nebraska, has a goal of photographing species before they disappear.

The project was recently honored with placement on a U.S. Postal Service stamp.

A conservationist who works with the iridescent green-and-gold colored beetle called it an “honor” that the Miami beetle was the landmark, 15,000th species photographed.

“It is too often that the small, less classically charismatic species are overlooked in mainstream conservation efforts,” said George Gann, founder/executive director of The Institute for Regional Conservation in Delray Beach, Florida, and chair emeritus for the Society for Ecological Restoration.

Sartore has said that his goal in the Photo Ark project is to inspire people to preserve and protect species that are on the decline.

“When people look through my lens, I want them to gain an appreciation for how interesting each species is, how worthy of protection they are, and how important each one is to keeping our planet healthy,” Sartore said in a press release Monday.

That goes for even a species as small as the Miami tiger beetle, he said. It is one of 2,600 species of beetles and is found only in the pine rocklands of southern Florida. The endangered Salt Creek tiger beetle is found only in saline marshes near Lincoln.

“When we take action to protect wildlife, we are safeguarding our own future too, and there is no better time to act than right now,” Sartore said.

The announcement of the 15,000th Photo Ark image on Monday comes as the National Geographic Society holds a monthlong celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act. It was also a prelude to Giving Tuesday, a day of philanthropy for nonprofits such as the National Geographic Society.