From fashion muse to combat photographer

UK art historian Antony Penrose will be in Narrabri to present ArtsNational Narrabri’s last arts talk of the 2026 season, Lee Miller’s War, at The Crossing Theatre on Monday 19 October.

Lee Miller’s career started as a stunning 1920s fashion model in New York City, before deciding to position herself on the other side of the lens, heading to Paris and becoming a fashion and fine-art photographer.

The movie titled ‘LEE’ starring Kate Winslet is based on his book The Lives of Lee Miller and for ten years he was heavily involved with its production and release.

During world war two Lee was a courageous war photographer and correspondent for Vogue magazine, whose stories and photographs have been preserved due to the work of her son, guest speaker Antony Penrose.

Lee Miller is thought to have been the only woman combat photographer with the allied infantry in Europe during the second world war.

During world war two, Lee was a courageous war photographer and correspondent for Vogue magazine. Photo copyright: Lee Miller Archives.

This lecture presents her war photojournalism from shortly after D-Day in Normandy, through the Siege of St Malo, the liberation of Paris, fighting across Germany, the liberation of Buchenwald and Dachau, to the flames leaping from Hitler’s Berghof near Berchtesgaden that signalled the end of the war, and then the post-war traumas of Austria and Hungary.

The story is told through extensive use of Lee Miller’s own words, set to her photographs.

Lee Miller’s career started as a stunning 1920s fashion model in New York City, before deciding to position herself on the other side of the lens, heading to Paris and becoming a fashion and fine-art photographer. Photo copyright: Lee Miller Archives

For the past 45 years, Antony has conserved and disseminated the work of his parents, Lee Miller and Roland Penrose. With his daughter Ami he is the co-director of The Lee Miller Archives and The Penrose Collection at Farley Farm House in Sussex and has seen his parents’ work featured in major exhibitions at the V&A, National Portrait Gallery, the Imperial War Museum London, Manchester Art Gallery, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and the Whitworth. He has lectured at museums and universities around the world and has made documentaries for television. The movie titled LEE starring Kate Winslet is based on his book The Lives of Lee Miller and for 10 years he was heavily involved with its production and release.

ArtsNational’s informative and entertaining lecture-style presentations, superbly illustrated in Cinema 1 at The Crossing Theatre, are delivered on diverse arts-related subjects by visiting national and international speakers. The talks last approximately one hour followed by drinks and canapes.

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