LEE- MILLER CORRESPONDENCE FROM A NO MANS LAND LUXEMBOURG ETAPE 1944 From Vogue Top Model to Vogue War

ar Correspondent and Photographer, Lee Miller was the first American Photographer on the Liberation road of Europe in 1944-1945. The January 1945 issue of the British edition of Vogue contained an article entitled Pattern of Liberation. The author and Photographer was Lee Miller. But the text is not about sewing patterns or fabrics. It deals with the situation in Luxembourg in the autumn of 1944 after it had been liberated by the Allied army. The American army then evacuated the civilian population from the area close to the front on the Siegfried Line. Lee Miller was 32 when the war began and was already a widely travelled and independent photographer with excellent technical expertise. She was only given the opportunity to become involved in reporting from the area close to the front about a month after the Allied landing in Normandy. The photographs and texts which she sent from Luxembourg show more than any other material in her work how much she made to satisfy the expectations which were placed on her in the war years. She particularly showed the distress of the people of Luxembourg by her photographs of civilians suffering during the evacuation. Lee Miller went even further and portrayed an individual Luxembourg woman as a role model. She seemed fascinated by Maysi Bastian, whom she described as a platinum blonde bombshell. She was a woman from Luxembourg who had both tact and the necessary robustness to act as a translator and explainer for the Civil Affairs staff in implementing the evacuation. A picture with Maysi Bastian is exhibited here at the embassy. The work of Lee Miller is shown at the Embasy of Luxembourg from May 7, 2011 to June 30, 2011. By appointment only, please contact Mr. Boris Soudakoff

The Model

The War Correspondent