COFA Student Gallery UNSW
The School of Art History and Theory at COFA & The Women’s and Gender Studies Program at UNSW are presenting a public lecture on the work of Photographer Lee Miller
details as follows
CAROLYN BURKE presents “The Eye of War: Lee Miller's Photojournalism”
Thursday 23 March, 2006
6.15-7.30pm
Location: Matthews Theatre C, Kensington Campus, UNSW
[E23 on the map available at: http://www.facilities.unsw.edu.au/Maps/maps.html]
Please RSVP to Click here to email Wilson
The Women’s and Gender Studies Program at UNSW in conjunction with the School of Art Theory and History at COFA are delighted to present a public lecture by Carolyn Burke on the work of the photographer Lee Miller. Lee Miller (1907–1977) began her career as a fashion model, and quickly decamped for Paris, where she became Man Ray's muse, and student. After they split, she returned to Manhattan for a brief stint as a studio photographer, but eventually returned to Europe. Her surrealist background led to her taking stunning photos of the London Blitz, but she shot her most memorable—and disturbing—images accompanying American troops from Paris to Dachau as a war correspondent for Vogue (extract from Publishers Weekly).
Carolyn Burke is well known to academic audiences as an early translator and commentator on the work of feminist philosopher Luce Irigaray. She is also an accomplished biographer. In 1997 she published her highly-acclaimed biography of the modernist poet and artist Mina Loy, aptly titled Becoming Modern: The Life of Mina Loy. Her new biography of Lee Miller (Lee Miller: A Life) has been receiving rave reviews from critics. Her lecture at UNSW will focus on Miller’s important war photography.
Donna Seaman, The Chicago Tribune
No one who reads Burke’s involving biography will ever forget Miller . . . . Demonstrating the same clarity of observation and sensitivity to subtleties that distinguish Miller’s photographs, Burke indelibly portrays a radiant woman forced to look into the heart of darkness, and an artist who cast light on a brutalized world, illuminating its abiding beauty and grace, and enhancing our empathy and awe.
Kevin Jackson, The Independent: Books of the Year
Carolyn Burke's Lee Miller . . . added a wealth of fresh detail to our received image of this fascinating photographer, model, muse, war correspondent and all-round heroine: Miller now seems braver and more abundantly gifted than ever.
Janet Maslin, New York Times
[Burke] captures the excitement of Miller's omnivorous spirit. . . . the book provides connective tissue between the woman and her work during the most vibrant part of her life.
The Economist
Until relatively recently, . . . Miller's fame, as a flawless beauty, photographic collaborator and model, over-shadowed her artistic legacy. This first full-length biography, by Carolyn Burke, an Australian-born art critic, shows how Miller's complex nature contributed to this neglect. [Her] sympathetic tribute sheds further light on the lives of this highly original, often misunderstood woman.
Alastair Sooke, The Telegraph
Since her death, Miller's reputation as a photographer has grown, and she is no longer known primarily as the Surrealists' "perversely enchanting muse". Burke stresses her claim to be remembered as an artist in her own right. Muse or artist, her independence is worth commemorating in itself. Lee Miller was an astounding woman, brought memorably to life in this astounding book.
Enquiries to: Click here to email Wilson
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