Lee's competence
Lee Miller was one of the most competent photographers of her time. Nevertheless, her ability and intelligence were ironically ignored because she was a woman. Typically, people want the best person possible to do a job so that it was done well. That is not the case for Miller, who experienced significant pushback to her being Vogue's war correspondent because she was a woman.
Lee's father
Traditionally, fathers protect their daughters and do not put them in compromising, sexual positions. Nevertheless, Lee Miller's father took nude photographs of his daughter when she was a young girl, sexualizing her and putting her in danger. Lee's father didn't protect her; he unexpectedly exploited her for his own ends. This transformed Miller's life, as she began a life in modeling and leaned heavily into the arts.
Photography trips
Towards the end of Miller's life, she went on a photography trip with her son Antony in Africa. Miller, who was sickly and unable to takes the photos she wanted, instructed Antony to take them for her. To take the photos, Miller gave Penrose an expensive camera, ironically entrusting a young and inexperienced man with something so sacred to her. She also didn't really want to give the camera to Penrose, but did so anyway, reflecting her interest in seeing her son succeed.
The bathtub photo
Miller, who was a war correspondent for Vogue throughout much of World War II, took a famous photo in Adolf Hitler's bathtub in his Munich apartment. Miller, who had just been to the Dachau Concentration camp and witnessed the horrors there, took off her muddy boots (wiping them on Hitler's bathmat) and entered the tub as a way to condemn Hitler and ridicule his abhorent actions. Ironically, this sad but ultimatley triumphant photo was taken on the same day that Hitler commited suicide, ending his reign of terror.
