A tribute to His Majesty King Mihai I of Romania

08.12.2017 - 08.01.2018

Lee Miller was a model in the 1920s and the first female photographer for Vogue.

Her photographs record a unique journey through rural Romania during 1938 and 1946, at a time of significant social and political change, when the urban and the rural started to collide.

Along with Roland Penrose, her husband, Victor and Hari Brauner she travelled extensively across Romania, documenting folk dances and rituals, musicians and the peasant costumes. The resulting collection of around 500 photographs by Lee Miller gives us a unique image of the rural life in Romania in that period.

Lee Miller returned to Romania alone at the beginning of 1946. By this time she had become a war correspondent and a combat photographer, documenting the advance of the US Army across Europe and she made unique photos to His Majesty King Mihai I of Romania and Her Majesty Queen Mother Elena in Peles Castle, Sinaia.

In recent years Lee Miller’s life and work have been acclaimed by books, television documentaries and exhibitions in major venues worldwide including The Corcoran, Washington, National Portrait Gallery, London and The Victoria and Albert Museum London. The show The Art of Lee Miller, curated by Mark Haworth-Booth toured to Philadelphia, San Francisco and Paris.

All Lee Miller material, works and photographs are © Lee Miller Archives, England 2017. All rights reserved. / leemiller.co.uk

Photo: Courtesy of Lee Miller Archives and Antony Penrose