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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Celebrate the Betty Freeman Centennial 💯🎂
The great patron of modern music was also a very fine photographer.
"A camera is like a golf club: this inert thing until you use it."
Her 1988 portrait of Alfred Brendel
Celebrate the Betty Freeman Centennial 💯🎂🎉
"She was our Prince Esterhazy, & L.A. was her Grand Palais where, instead of Haydn, the likes of Boulez, Birtwistle, & Lachenmann displayed their wares."
- Russell Platt
📷 With John Cage
Betty Freeman
John Adams rehearsing at Royce Hall, UCLA
February 1989 #Freeman100
Nelson Riddle's partnership with Nat King Cole in the 1950s was nearly as fruitful as the collaboration with Sinatra. It began with his arrangement for "Mona Lisa" in 1958, which Les Baxter took credit for. #Riddle100
Another big hit for Nat King Cole & Nelson Riddle, "Unforgettable", recorded in 1951 #Riddle100
The first Cole/Riddle LP was the 10" Nat King Cole Sings For Two In Love, also from 1951. Standards from Nat King Cole, including the Gershwins' Our Love Is Here to Stay, which was one of a few songs that was really special for Dixie & me. #Riddle100
Remembering Nobel laureate Saint-John Perse on his birthday
📷 Sergio Larrain, 1959
"The reader has to allow the images to fall into his memory successively without questioning the reasonableness of each at the moment; so that, at the end, a total effect is produced."
- TS Eliot
Sergio Larrain's photograph of Saint-John Perse with his wife Dorothy Milburn Russell, in the Hotel Cambon, Washington DC, 1959
Saint-John Perse is awarded the Grand Prix National des Lettres by André Malraux, 1959.
Remembering Fred Allen on his birthday
A great shot by George Silk for Life, 1950
Allen is one of my heroes. He seems terribly sad, resting backstage during a TV rehearsal. The great radio comedian didn't enjoy television much; he said he didn't like furniture that talked.
I'm reading Fred Allen's 1954 book Treadmill to Oblivion. Love the Hirschfeld illustrations! You can borrow the book from archive.org: archive.org/details/treadm…
Another Hirschfeld illustration from Fred Allen's Treadmill to Oblivion. Today we're celebrating the great radio comedian's birthday.