Lee: The female reporter who catalogued the horrors of the Second World War
Kate Winslet's new film Lee explores the life and work of American photojournalist Lee Miller, who was an acclaimed war correspondent for British Vogue magazine during the Second World War.
The Sky Original film shines a spotlight on the pioneering woman who was determined to document the brutal truth of the Nazi regime despite the challenges facing female correspondents.
Speaking on the podcast Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware, Winslet elaborates on Miller's desire to distance herself from her former label as a fashion model and instead establish herself as a respected authority in her field.
She said: "She went as a complicated middle-aged woman and she did it by herself and I suddenly realised wow, she's been so labelled incorrectly as this... ex-cover girl and that was a slither of her life when she was a model.
"And actually, she didn't even like being a model and she couldn't wait to get away from it. She famously said 'I'd rather take a picture than be one'."
At times partnered with Life Magazine photographer David E Scherman (played by Andy Samberg), Miller captured some of the most thought-provoking and iconic images of the Second World War.
BFBS Forces Radio spoke to actress Andrea Riseborough who plays Audrey Withers, British Vogue's editor who was responsible for publishing many of Miller's pictures, with the aim of informing and engaging women in the war effort.
Of Miller and Withers' working relationship, Riseborough said: "Audrey... was so passionate about giving Lee a platform because in Lee she saw a brilliant writer [and] an extraordinary photojournalist.
"She was one of a few people who were able to move around the many hurdles that it took to get a woman even close to the frontline."
Withers sent Miller to Normandy in July 1944 to report on and take photos of American nurses at the 44th Evacuation Field Hospital in France, which was filled with severely wounded soldiers.
Miller returned with hundreds of powerful photos and 10,000 candid words describing what she had witnessed firsthand – cementing her place as a journalist who was willing to do what it took to document one of the darkest periods in human history.
Of Miller's determination in the face of adversity, Winslet said: "It takes a particular person to do that.
"The tenacity, the courage, the respect for the voiceless victims of war, giving them a story in photographing what they experienced, giving them a voice."
The photojournalist captured iconic moments during the liberation of Paris and the Battle of Alsace, as well as documenting the grim reality of the Nazi concentration camps of Buchenwald and Dachau.
However, as Riseborough says, Miller's work wasn't always as appreciated, saying: "The government and Vogue were working very closely together throughout the war effort to sometimes lift the spirits of the nation, sometimes protect them.
"Audrey very much wanted to print every single image that she could of Dachau that Lee had so bravely managed to capture, and that just wasn't seen as appropriate at the time, and it broke Audrey and Lee.
"Lee had been through so much and seen so much that there was so much damage already, but this was another huge blow."
Eventually, those horrific images were published in American Vogue and Audrey played a crucial part in making that happen.
On 30 April 1945, the day Hitler took his own life, Scherman photographed Miller in the dictator's bath while her boots, covered in dust from Dachau, dirtied the white bathmat.
Miller's son Antony Penrose spoke with the Telegraph after her death in 1977 about the iconic bath photograph, saying: "I think she was sticking two fingers up at Hitler.
"On the floor are her boots, covered with the filth of Dachau, which she has trodden all over Hitler's bathroom floor.
"She is saying she is the victor."
Winslet was also inspired by Miller because the photojournalist was "redefining femininity" and moving herself away from the stereotype many women were forced to conform to, even to this day.
She said: "Lee Miller represents femininity to mean resilience, strength, power, courage, compassion.
"It takes it away from the muse, the model, the pretty young thing, the svelte, all these awful labelly words that get thrown at women all the time."
During the Second World War, Miller was unique as she was one of the few women who worked as a war journalist with a press pass, thanks to her being American, and capture images.
She joined the ranks of women such as Martha Gellhorn, who stowed away on a hospital ship on 5 June 1944 and disguised herself as a stretcher-bearer, making her the only woman to witness the Normandy Landings in person.
Despite the odds stacked against female correspondents during the Second War World, Miller forged ahead, at great personal cost.
Due to the horrific sights she saw and the extreme measures she took to document the brutal reality of war, the photojournalist suffered from severe depression and PTSD, and self-medicated with alcohol and sleeping tablets.
Her vital work photographing the stark reality of war as historical evidence gave Vogue readers, often shielded by people in power to help keep up morale, a vital insight into what was happening in Europe.
In a message to Withers with the photographs of the concentration camp at Dachau Miller wrote: "I implore you to believe this is true."
Thanks to the courageous efforts of women like Miller, the world was able to see the true horrors of war, allowing future generations to honour the sacrifices of their predecessors and learn from their experiences.
Lee is out at cinemas on 13 September and will come to Sky Cinema in the UK later this year.
For the military community stationed overseas, check BFBS Cinemas for full listings – cinemas.bfbs.com/films/lee
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