ANTONY PENROSE AND ADRIAN SILVAN-IONESCU ON LEE MILLER
20.05.2025

Salonul de proiecte
Palatul Universul, Corp B, Etaj 1
Actor Ion Brezoianu 23-25, București

Public presentation: Tuesday, May 20, 2025, 19.00

Salonul de proiecte is pleased to invite you on Tuesday, May 20, starting at 7:00 PM, to a public talk dedicated to the American photographer Lee Miller and her connections to Romania, featuring special guests Antony Penrose and Adrian-Silvan Ionescu.

The event will highlight the fascinating figure of Lee Miller – photographer, war correspondent, and a major personality of the 20th century – through the lens of her relationship with the surrealist artist Roland Penrose, as well as her travels in Romania, documented through photography at a time of profound historical transformation. Antony Penrose, son of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose, will discuss the volume The Road Is Wider Than Long – a visual poem created by Roland Penrose in 1938, following a journey they made together through the Balkans. His presentation will include photographs and excerpts from their correspondence, offering an intimate glimpse into their relationship and rural life in Greece and Romania at the end of the 1930s. Adrian-Silvan Ionescu will contextualize Lee Miller’s visits to Romania, particularly the one in 1946, when, as a journalist for Vogue magazine, she produced an extensive photo report capturing the country’s landscapes, traditions, and socio-political changes. The resulting images and texts were published in both the British and American editions of the magazine. Many of these materials are now preserved in the Lee Miller Archives at Farley Farm, UK. Lee Miller created an invaluable photographic portfolio that offers rare insight into Romania during the final years of the old regime and the first year of post-war transformations.

Antony Penrose is co-director of Farleys House and Gallery Ltd, which manages the Lee Miller Archive and the Penrose Collection. Antony Penrose is the son of Lee Miller and Roland Penrose. He is the author of several books, articles, and plays dedicated to his parents and their artistic circle. The film LEE(2024), starring Kate Winslet, is based on his biography The Lives of Lee Miller. A curator, visual artist, and filmmaker, he regularly gives lectures around the world.

Adrian-Silvan Ionescu is an art historian, researcher, and associate professor. He is the director of the “G. Oprescu” Institute of Art History in Bucharest. His areas of expertise include Romanian art history, photography history, and ethnography. He is the author of 16 books and editor of over 18 volumes, including The Great War: Photography on the Romanian Front, 1916–1919 and Balls in Modern Romania 1790–1920. As an associate professor at the National University of Arts Bucharest, he teaches courses in the history of photography and film, as well as a master’s course titled Image and Narrative, which explores stylistic harmonies in the 19th century. He is a member of several prestigious international organizations and has received multiple awards for his cultural and academic contributions.

Image: Lee Miller, Lena Constante and Elena Pătrășcanu with puppets, Romania, 1946 © Lee Miller Archives, England 2025. All rights reserved.

This event is organized by the Salonul de proiecte Association, as part of the project “Mobilizing Patterns: transnational female solidarities.”

Cultural project co-financed by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund

The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or how the results of the project can be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the grantee.

Partners: National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Radio Romania Cultural, “George Oprescu” Institute of Art History, Federation of the Jewish Communities in Romania