A stunning self-portrait by Lee Miller
modern archival-toned gelatin silver print from original negative, 1939 @NPGLondon
Leonora Carrington by Lee Miller
modern archival-toned gelatin silver print from original negative, 1939 @NPGLondon
Humphrey Jennings by Lee Miller
gelatin silver print, 1942 @NPGLondon
I didn't know Jennings; he's a documentary filmmaker. Lindsay Anderson in 1954 called him "the only real poet that British cinema has yet produced."
But Miller seems more interested in the smoke...
Henry Moore by Lee Miller
Sketching in a tube station being used as a bomb shelter, 1943 @NPGLondon
"The mystery of the hole, the mysterious fascination of caves in hill sides & cliffs."
He also said, "The first hole made through a piece of stone is a revelation."
Oskar Kokoschka by Lee Miller
modern archival-toned gelatin silver print from original negative, 1950 @NPGLondon
Lee Miller by David E. Scherman
modern archival-toned gelatin silver print from original negative, 1943 @NPGLondon
What an appealing figure!
Her fashion photography might seem trivial after her hair-raising war photography & searching portraits, but man, did Lee Miller have an eye!
Picture Post, "Four That Are Wrong And One That Is Right", 1950
Marvellous shots by Lee Miller for Picture Post, "Travel Light For Whitsun", May 1950
Lee Miller took one of the greatest fashion photographs ever taken: "London Says Dress To Suit Yourself", for Picture Post, August 1950. It's like a 17th century Dutch genre painting.
Lee Miller
Roland Penrose, London, 1949 @NatGalleriesSco
Miller married the surrealist painter in 1947, & became Lady Penrose when he was knighted in 1966. The two were married until Miller's death in 1977.
Lee Miller
Irmgard Seefried sings an aria from ‘Madame Butterfly,’ 1945
A powerful photo that combines Miller's portrait work with her war documentation; this was taken at the bombed-out Vienna Opera House.
In his great book Ring Resounding, John Culshaw tells the story of an American tourist in Vienna after the war, asking someone on the street if he could direct him to the Opera House. "You had no trouble finding it from the air," was the reply.
Self-portrait with a friend: Pablo Picasso & Lee Miller at the Rue des Grands Augustins in Paris, 1944
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Happy birthday to Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk 🎂
📷 Ara Güler
"His books are multi-layered, allegorical, sometimes fanciful, Proustian in their attention to detail and Borgesian in their dazzling complexity."
- Sarah Lyall
Orhan Pamuk by Sophie Bassouls, 1990
"Books, which we mistake for consolation, only add depth to our sorrow."
It's so great that other photographers have continued Philippe Halsman's #jump! tradition. Here's Orhan Pamuk by Alex Majoli.
This was taken at Cannes in 2007, when Pamuk was a member of the Festival Jury.
Celebrate the Richard Avedon Centennial 🎂💯
📷 Irving Penn, Vogue, August 23, 1993
"He was small, dark & electric with his own sort of vitality. Crackling. Sparks seem to fly out of him. He flashes his fingers like tiny rapid moths."
- Ginette Spanier
On Richard Avedon's Centennial, my favourite portraits
Carson McCullers & Tennessee Williams, April 25, 1950 #Avedon100
On Richard Avedon's Centennial, my favourite portraits
Buster Keaton, 1952 #Avedon100
I'm listening to Concerto Italiano play Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, in their 2005 recording under Rinaldo Alessandrini.
I've always loved the cover photo; it's by Julia Fullerton-Batten. I'll start a thread of some of my favourites of her photos here. 🧵
Julia Fullerton-Batten
The Lady of Shalott, 2018
... which is, of course, a reinterpretation of John Waterhouse's 1888 painting of Lord Tennyson's poem.
Happy birthday Sofia Coppola 🎂
📷 Kate Barry
"Coppola is a true auteur — a filmmaker with a distinct worldview and sensibility and a personal set of quasi-autobiographical interests."
- J. Hoberman
Sofia with her dad on the set of Godfather 2
📷 Steve Schapiro, 1974
The Coppola family by Ted Streshinsky, 1974
Eleanor & Francis Ford Coppola with their kids Sofia, Roman & Gian-Carlo
Celebrate the Red Garland Centennial 🎂💯
📷 Bill Spilka, c. 1957
"Garland's style was understated and harmonically sophisticated; he would delineate a melody, then shade it with distinctively voiced block chords and hints of counterpoint."
- Jon Pareles #RedGarland100
Esmond Edwards' great album cover for Red Garland's "Red in Bluesville", from 1959. Edwards took the photo, & designed the album as well.
Remembering Bea Arthur on her birthday 🎂
📷 Martin Mills, 1972
"Those of us working with her knew we were working with a golden comedic touch." - Norman Lear
Beatrice Arthur with Bill Callaway & Carl Ballantine in Bruce Jay Friedman & Richard Adler's musical A Mother's Kisses
📷 Jack Mitchell, 1968
Angela Lansbury & Beatrice Arthur in Mame
📷 Friedman-Abeles, 1966
Arthur won the Best Featured Actress in a Musical Tony for her performance. She was Beatrice on the stage & Bea on TV.