Lee Miller is back in Saint-Malo. Finally ! This American artist, muse of surrealism and exceptional photographer, deserved that the city of Saint-Malo, so dear to her, ended up paying tribute to her talent. This is done thanks to the exhibition “Saint-Malo under siege”, rich in 54 photographs taken in situ by the photojournalist between August 13 and 17, 1944, the date of the liberation of the city in ’83.my US Infantry Division.
However, those bruised faces of the Malouins hurriedly evacuating their devastated homes, those soldiers with worried looks, those German prisoners mortified by defeat but relieved to be alive, Lee Miller, armed with her Rolleiflex still around her neck, should never having grabbed them. . History decided otherwise.
Magazine photographer. FashionLee Miller (1907-1977) landed on Omaha Beach (Calvados), on August 12, 1944. The US Army Intelligence Service agreed to accredit him and escort him to Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine), where it is assumed that he must report the “day after,” since military intelligence certified that the sector was pacified.
At that time, remember, women were prohibited from venturing onto the battlefield. However, Saint-Malo, contrary to official information, is on fire. Galvanized by their Prussian commander, Colonel Andreas von Aulock, who fought at Stalingrad, the German soldiers, entrenched in the city of Alet, from where they control the port and the bay, resist fiercely. On August 13, as Lee Miller approached the walls of the walled city, a maritime paradise so admired by this great Francophile, fighting broke out. The journalist then discovers the fear of snipers, the terror of improvised explosive devices and the horror of mutilated bodies. Although he survived the bombing of London in 1940, he experienced his first war, his “personal war”writes.
censored photos
She is the only photographer for miles around. Robert Capa (1913-1954), whose images of the Landings published in life He traveled all over the world, leaving the area a few days before. “Lee Miller suddenly goes on to report on the war and proves to be very brave., says Hélène Gédouin, one of the exhibition’s two curators. He will also follow the American troops until the liberation of the Dachau camp. [Allemagne]in April 1945.”
The violence that Lee Miller witnessed during these five historic days in August is barely reflected in the photographs presented in Saint-Malo, except for those of the incessant air raids. His images revealing the napalm bombing of the city of Alet by the US air force will also be censored by Washington and not published in the edition of Fashion British publication from October 1944, where his report from Saint-Malo appeared, with an article written by him. The United States absolutely wants to keep this new weapon, designed in 1942, a secret.
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