Lee Miller: A Woman’s War at the Imperial War Museum London

A Woman’s War tells the story of photographer Lee Miller’s time during the Second World War. The exhibition takes a journey though her war years and then tells the sad tale of her post war struggles with alcohol and post traumatic stress disorder. The images focus on women’s roll in the war, instead of male solders you presented with the world of female volunteer firefighters and female members of the French resistance.

Lee Miller London Bomb Damage 1940

Model shot with the backdrop of bomb damage in London 1940.

During the war Lee Miller shot for Vogue. As a woman in the 40s, she was not afforded the same opportunities as her male counterparts. To get to continental Europe she had to stow away on a hospital ship heading to Normandy. The exhibition tells her incredible story though her photos of a bombed out London, the battlefields of Europe, the end of the war and the horrors of the Dachau concentration camp.

Lee Miller women at war

Taken during the blitz this image was published by American Vogue in a feature about British women at war. They are wearing masks worn by people doing Air Raid Precautions work (they are meant to protect from the heat of fire).

Women with Shaved head accused of being a collaborator by Lee Miller

This woman was being interrogated before being publicly shamed as a collaborator by the Forces Françaises de l’Intérieur (the French Resistance).

Deputy Mayor Ernst Kurt Lisso daughter after committing suicide by Lee Miller

The daughter of the Deputy Mayor of Leipzig after the family committed suicide on 20th April 1945 as American troops were entering the city.

A Woman’s War is on until the 24th April 2016 at the Imperial War Museum London. Tickets cost £10. This is also an accompanying book called ‘Lee Miller: A Woman’s War’ which is available from Amazon UK (£20) here and Amazon US ($33) here.

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