Surrealism and war: the life of Lee Miller – in pictures

Untitled [woman with hand on head], Paris, France, 1931

Entrepreneur Condé Nast discovered Miller aged 20 and she worked as a model for Vogue and Vanity Fair. That career came to an end when her image was used in an ad campaign for Kotex sanitary towels. As her son, Anthony Penrose, writes in the book’s essay: ‘Formerly no photograph of a woman had been used in this way and it outraged “respectable” society.’ Undeterred, Miller saw this as the start of a new career. ‘I would rather take a picture than be one,’ she announced, and booked her ticket to Paris.