As part of Brighton and Hove Artists Open Houses, the Lee Miller Archives will be bringing their first ever Print Room Sale to The Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, Brignton, on the weekends 11th &12th and 18th & 19th May 2013. Photographs, hand printed from Miller’s original negatives, will be available, for the first time via a print room sale, to both the general public and committed photographic collectors alike. In both Gelatin Silver and Digital formats, these images will be available to purchase at reduced gallery prices during these four days of unique, ‘in person access’ to this select collection from the Lee Miller Archives.

Penrose Press Release

Penrose Film Productions Ltd, managing agents of the photographer Lee Miller Archives, The Penrose Collection & Farley Farm House Present

The First Ever Lee Miller Archives Print Room Sale

As part of Brighton and Hove Artists Open Houses, the Lee Miller Archives will be bringing their first ever Print Room Sale to The Friends Meeting House, Ship Street, on the weekends 11th &12th and 18th & 19th May 2013.

Photographs, hand printed from Miller’s original negatives, will be available, for the first time via a print room sale, to both the general public and committed photographic collectors alike. In both Gelatin Silver and Digital formats, these images will be available to purchase at reduced gallery prices during these four days of unique, ‘in person access’ to this select collection from the Lee Miller Archives.

Renowned printer Carole Callow has been the sole printer of fine Gelatin Silver prints for the Lee Miller estate for 30 years and this event sees not only the chance to purchase exclusive estate prints as collector’s items,  but also meet with the printer herself.

Over the course of the four days, visitors will also have a chance to meet with Antony Penrose (son of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose), who grew up at Farley Farm House “the home of the surrealists and Ami Bouhassane (Miller’s granddaughter, Registrar and Trustee of the Lee Miller Archives and Curator of The Penrose Collection) who will in turn each be present at this momentous sale.

The Friends ‘Quaker’ Meeting House is a significant choice of venue for this unique event, pulling together various threads from the fascinating story of Miller’s life. She was expelled from five schools during her adolescence before finally settling in her sixth, a Quaker school. Their fundamental belief of truth, honesty & integrity appealed to Lee and the influence of these pillars can be seen in the work she produced, particularly in her conviction to bear witness to the horrors she recorded while working as a photo-journalist during World War II and at the liberation of the death camps Dachau & Buchenwald. In addition, Miller’s husband, surrealist artist and Picasso biographer, Roland Penrose was himself a Quaker.

More about Lee Miller

Elizabeth “Lee” Miller, Lady Penrose (April 23, 1907 – July 21, 1977) was an American-born photographer and artist. Born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1907, she was a successful fashion model in New York City in the 1920s, modeling for many of the great photographers of the day. In 1929 moved to Paris, where she became an established fashion and fine art photographer, setting up her own studio and working with well-known surrealist artist and photographer Man Ray, As his lover and muse she influenced and featured in much of his work as well as developing as a photographer and surrealist artist in her own right.

During the Second World War, she became an acclaimed war correspondent contributing to Vogue, covering events such as the London Blitz, the liberation of Paris, and the liberation of the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Dachau. She was probably the only woman combat photo-journalist to cover the war in Europe with the infantry and among her many exploits she witnessed the liberation of Paris, the fighting in Luxembourg and Alsace and the Russian/American link up at Torgau. She billeted in both Hitler and Eva Braun’s houses in Munich, and photographed Hitler’s house Wachenfeld at Berchtesgaden in flames on the eve of Germany’s surrender.

Along with her husband, Roland Penrose – artist and Picasso biographer – Lee moved to Farley Farm House in East Sussex in 1949. Known as “the home of the surrealists” the house entertained many great artists such as Picasso, Tàpies and Max Ernst. Miller continued to contribute to Vogue for a further eight years after the war, covering fashion and celebrities, and photographs of some, such as Charlie Chaplin, Clarke Gable, Fred Astaire and Dylan Thomas can be found in the newly-launched Online Picture Library alongside images of other artist visitors to Farley Farm House.

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