As promised, here are a few images I selected from the Lee Miller exhibition at @tate Britain.
I wasn’t sure how many to share, how many themes to touch on, or how to organise them… so I stayed close to the exhibition itself. I’ve also left out some key images on purpose (read on if you’re curious).
I also wasn’t sure what thoughts to share because there are too many. But here I go.
Through Miller’s work, we see the Europe of the wars, the faces of the artists who shaped the culture of their time, and the people who lived through it ...children and women most notably.
What struck me, though, was the choice by the curators to not contextualise this history within the conflicts and the dangerous rhetoric we’re seeing across the continent today.
I also found that some of the images triggered me, though not for the obvious. I was surprised by how strongly I reacted to the portraits of privilege toward the end of the exhibition: portraits of artists who swapped the wreckage in Europe for comfortable careers in the US.
It was also unsettling to see viewers express shock and sadness at wartime images of children and civilians in a detached manner as if what they depict isn't still happening right now.
Finally i found it troubling that the “sensitive content” warning was used to create a separate room for the images considered most horrific. Part of why empathy feels diminished today is precisely because we can so easily scroll past what disturbs us and I question whether museums should do this.
Having grown up where I did, I know how easy it is to switch off when given the chance. But history is full of painful, humiliating moments that shaped our communities and hiding them doesn’t make them go away.
This said, today, people broadcast their own realities from war zones but in Miller’s images, those subjects had no voice, no choice and I ask myself whether showing someone’s family member in a degrading situation they were forced into is something we should be doing as a society.
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