Art Institute of Chicago Exhibition Spotlights Lee Miller, Whose Photos and Words Captured the Beauty, Whimsy, and Horrors of Human Existence

by anders458, posted in Chicago, Illinois, museums, photography, U.S. history

BY ANDREW MORKES, FOUNDER AND AUTHOR OF THE NATURE IN CHICAGOLAND BLOG (FOUNDED IN 2017) AND BOOK

I’m taking a break from nature in Chicagoland to tell you about a great photography exhibit I recently visited at the Art Institute of Chicago. I’ll be publishing new articles about Chicago nature spots next week.

Any fan of Lee Miller knows that she was much more than a pretty face as a Vogue fashion model. She had much larger life ambitions than simply appearing in advertisements and on the pages of a fashion magazine—or in her own words, “’I’d rather take a picture than be one.” Miller was fearless in her drive for creative growth, new experiences, adventure, and the facts (as a reporter and war photographer), so the title of her exhibition, Lee Miller: Fearless, at the Art Institute of Chicago is apropos.

Lee Miller: Fearless is the first comprehensive survey of her photographs in more than 25 years. It features approximately 150 works. The exhibition is organized by the Art Institute of Chicago in collaboration with Tate Britain and Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. I recently visited the exhibition, and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves photography, journalism, and the story of a groundbreaking artist. You will have to move fast to view it. The exhibition closes on December 7, 2026. (Of course, there are plenty of ways to learn about Miller in addition to the exhibition. I’ve included some links at the end of this article.

“It was a matter of getting out on a damn limb and sawing it off behind you,” is how Miller phrased her desire for taking chances and growing as an artist, photographer, reporter, and person.

Miller packed a lot into her life. She was a famous fashion model in the 1920s. Then a Surrealist innovator who photographed and often befriended artists, actors, and other creative people such as Charlie Chaplin, Man Ray (who also became her lover and creative collaborator), and Pablo Picasso. She operated commercial photography studios in Paris and in New York. But, in my opinion, it was her vivid reporting and disturbing—but necessary—images from wartime and postwar Europe from 1944–46 that cement her place in the creative and journalistic worlds.

Lee Miller: Fearless takes you through her early career as a fashion model, her collaborations with Man Ray and other Surrealists, and her travels to Egypt (many of these images have not been seen in decades). Her work is sometimes norm-busting, whimsical, occasionally disturbing, and often thought-provoking. The opening exhibition halls take visitors chronologically through her younger professional years to her Egyptian explorations.

London, War Correspondent, the Death Camps, and Postwar Europe

Miller left Egypt and moved to London and worked as a staff photographer for Vogue from June 1939 through the Blitz and beyond. During the Blitz, Germany bombarded London from September 1940 and May 1941 (daily for the first two months). These attacks killed nearly 30,000 Londoners and left one in six homeless. Miller captured the harrowing scenes of destruction, as well as Londoners’ attempts to persevere during these challenging times. Her work was included in Grim Glory: Pictures of London Under Fire. The book was popular both in Great Britain and the United States (under the re-named Bloody But Unbowed: Pictures of Britain Under Fire), and some credit it with educating Americans about the terrors faced by the British and encouraging policymakers to enter the war.

Miller wanted to document the war on the front lines in Europe in words and photographs. In late 1942, she received accreditation from the U.S. Army but was not allowed to work in war zones because she was a woman. In summer 1944, right after the D-Day invasion of France by the Allies, she was granted permission to travel to the front lines. Her first assignment was to document the Allied field hospitals behind the beaches in Normandy. You can read Miller’s account and view her photographs in “USA Tent Hospital,” an article that was published in American Vogue on September 15, 1944, and is collected in the two-volume Library of America’s Reporting: World War II (two of my favorite books). Miller followed the U.S. Army through Europe and reported about a wide range of events and battles including the Liberation of Paris, the Battle of St. Malo (“The Siege of St. Malo” is another powerful Miller story in Reporting: World War II), the fighting in Luxembourg and Alsace, and the Russian/American link up near Torgau, Germany.

Miller followed the U.S. Army through Europe, witnessing front line combat and many major events, including the Liberation of Paris and the liberation of the concentration camps at Dachau and Buchenwald. Visitors to the exhibition will be able to view a wide range of her powerful images of battles (many to which she had a front-row spot), field hospitals, and the terrible effects of war on the civilian population.

The last room in the exhibit features a pictorial tour that Miller made of Germany from March through Germany’s surrender on May 8, 1945. A 20-minute audio presentation features an actor reading some of her letters to Vogue regarding these harrowing months. Warning: Many of the photos are very disturbing.

“I Implore You To Believe This is True.”

This was the message that Miller sent her Vogue editor after being one of the first photojournalists to reach the concentration (and death camps) at Buchenwald (five days after its liberation) and Dachau (one day after its liberation) in 1945. The gruesome, soul-crushing photos of human suffering in the camps were almost too terrible to believe unless you saw them for yourself.

Out of respect for the dead and the suffering of the survivors, I did not take any photos of the photographs of atrocities committed against Jewish people (the majority of victims), those with disabilities, gay and bisexual men, Roma and Sinti, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and political opponents and dissenters, among others. But I did record Miller’s captions, which will give you an idea of the Nazi darkness that enveloped Europe at the time:

  • “A Pile of Starved Bodies” (Buchenwald)
  • “Prisoners With Cremated Remains” (Buchenwald)
  • “Crematorium Ovens” (Buchenwald)
  • “Remains of Holocaust Victims on Trucks” (Dachau)
  • “Prisoners in Bunks” (Dachau)
  • “Scavenging Among Ruins” (Dachau)

Miller worried that her photographs were too grisly and disturbing for American readers, but Vogue published her work in June 1945 under the articles, “Believe It” and “Nazi Harvest.” You can view pages from the Vogue articles at the exhibit.

“I usually don’t take pictures of horrors, but don’t think that every town in every area isn’t rich with them. I hope Vogue will feel that it can publish these pictures.”–Lee Miller

“Went to [Dachau] this morning . . . in this case the camp is so close to the town that there’s no question about the inhabitants knowing what went on . . . the railway siding into the camp runs past quite a few swell villas and the last train of dead and semi-dead deportees was long enough to extend past them. The cars are still full of dead, skeletons . . . the path behind the trains is littered with the fleshless bodies of those who tried to get out and walk to their execution.”–Lee Miller

With the rise of far-right ideologies and increasing Holocaust denial today, exhibits like Miller’s reinforce the evil and darkness that can envelop civilized societies if people are not diligent and do not fight against those who want to ignore the rule of law, basic human decency, and ethical norms. They serve as a testament to the terrible actions of humans in the past, as well as serve as a warning against the rise of evil today and in the future. That’s why we have journalists and other fact-finders to shed light on the dark corners of the world and sometimes terrible actions of human beings. Some people today seem to have forgotten this.

Postwar Activities and Death

Miller stayed in Europe until 1946 to document the terrible aftereffects of the war. “Penetrating deep into Eastern Europe, she covered harrowing scenes of children dying in Vienna, peasant life in devastated post-war Hungary, and finally the execution of Prime Minister Lazlo Bardossy,” according to the Lee Miller Archives. Miller battled depression because of the horrific scenes that she had encountered during her war and post-war years. She continued as a fashion photographer but gradually moved away from photography to focus on the culinary arts during her last two decades of life. She died on July 21, 1977, at her farm in the East Sussex (United Kingdom) countryside.

Final Thoughts

I encourage you to go see Lee Miller: Fearless. Its early exhibit rooms are filled with beauty and creative whimsy. While her later work is highly disturbing at times, it serves as a great reminder of how seemingly civilized countries can devolve into evil if most people don’t stand up for what is right. The exhibit is free as part of your admission price to the Art Institute.

Spending a day roaming the art- and history-filled halls of the Art Institute is one of my favorite Chicago activities. Doing so will allow you to get away from social media and other screens; immerse yourself in beauty, culture, and history; perhaps be inspired to create your own art; and get a good workout (the Art Institute is vast). Here are a few other exhibits that I visited:

The Mary Cassatt: After Impressionism exhibit was nice, but it didn’t wow me for some reason. Still, her work is beautiful. ($7, open through January 3, 2027.)

Raqib Shaw’s Paradise Lost, a more than 100-foot-wide, 21-panel painting, will blow your mind with its imagery and vivid washes of color. (Free with admission; open through January 3, 2028.)

Embroidered Traditions from Morocco to Afghanistan was also fascinating from both a cultural and artistic perspective. (Free with admission; open through January 25, 2027)

More Lee Miller Resources

“Lee Miller, In Front of and Behind the Camera”

“I’d Rather Take a Picture Than Be One”

Lee Miller Archives

Lee Miller Timeline

Copyright (text): © Andrew Morkes, except quoted material

Copyright (photos): © Lee Miller estate and various museums and archives: I do not hold copyright to any of the Lee Miller text or images that I took photographs of at the Art Institute.

Looking for some other great nature destinations in Chicagoland? If so, check out my book, Nature in Chicagoland: More Than 120 Fantastic Nature Destinations That You Must Visit. It features amazing destinations in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Click on the title to learn more. The book has 306 pages and 210+ photos and is only $19.99.

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ABOUT ANDREW MORKES

I’ve been a writer and editor for more than 30 years. I’m the founder of College & Career Press (2002); the author and publisher of The Morkes Report: College and Career Planning Trends blog; and the author and publisher of Hot Health Care Careers: 30 Occupations With Fast Growth and Many New Job Openings; Nontraditional Careers for Women and Men: More Than 30 Great Jobs for Women and Men With Apprenticeships Through PhDs; They Teach That in College!?: A Resource Guide to More Than 100 Interesting College Majors, which was selected as one of the best books of the year by the library journal Voice of Youth Advocates; and other titles. They Teach That in College!? provides more information on environmental- and sustainability-related majors such as Ecotourism, Range Management, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Built Environment, Sustainability Studies, and Sustainable Agriculture/Organic Farming. I also served as a member of the parent advisory board at my son’s school for five years.

In addition to these publications, I’ve written more than 80 books about careers for other publishing and media companies including Infobase (such as the venerable Encyclopedia of Careers & Vocational Guidance, College Readiness: The Vault Guide for High School Juniors and Seniors, the Vault Career Guide to Consulting, and many volumes in the Careers in Focus, Discovering Careers, What Can I Do Now?!, and Career Skills Library series), Lerner Publishing, and Mason Crest (including those in the Careers in the Building Trades, Hands-On Careers, Social Media Today, Woman in STEM Careers, Getting Started, and Cool Careers in Science series). Many titles that I have written and edited have received positive reviews in Booklist; Voice of Youth Advocates; Library Bookwatch; CHOICE, a publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries (a division of the American Library Association); and other publications.

Here’s a list of the environmental- and clean energy-focused titles that I’ve written or co-written:

Articles about my work have appeared in the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Practical Homeschooling, and other publications. My photographs of musicians, artists, and the natural world have been published in several books. My poetry has been published in Cadence, Wisconsin Review, Poetry Motel, Strong Coffee, and Mid-America Review. As an amateur artist, I’m pleased to say that four of my paintings were included in the 2025 Beverly Art Walk. Additionally, six of my photographs were featured in the 2026 Beverly Art Walk.

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