In 1927 in New York Lee Miller was saved from being run over by none other than the famous publisher Conde Nast. The next month she was on the front cover of Vogue.
By the end of the decade she had scandalised polite American society when her picture was used to promote Kotex sanitary towels for the first time. She became a celebrated surrealist photographer and a war correspondent. But in the late forties she turned her back on photography and died in 1977 with little recognition. This month The Photographer's Gallery in London will open an exhibition of her portraits to coincide with a new biography by Richard Calvocoressi. Pippa Oldfield from the Photographer's Gallery and Tony Penrose, Lee Miller's son examine her life. Lee Miller: Portraits of a Life, The Photographers Gallery, 5 Great Newport Street, London WC2, 29 November 2002-1 February 2003
