Annie Leibovitz Recreates Photo of Lee Miller in Hitler’s Bathtub With Kate Winslet
Celebrated photographer Annie Leibovitz has recreated the famous photo of photojournalist Lee Miller in Adolf Hitler’s bathtub with the actress Kate Winslet. Winslet stars as Lee in an upcoming biopic.
Leibovitz took the image for a feature in Vogue this month and shared some of the photos from the shoot with Winslet on her Instagram page.
The original photo of Miller in Hitler’s bathtub was taken on April 30, 1945 — the same day the Nazi leader took his own life while holed up in a bunker in Berlin.
Along with fellow photographer David E. Scherman, the pair snuck into Hitler’s Munich home and Scherman took the surreal image of Miller bathing in the Fuehrer’s tub. There is even a photo of Hitler in uniform perched on the side as Miller’s dirty boots press against the bathtub’s tiles.
According to Art and Object, Scherman said of the photo that it was a “leisurely, overdue bath.” After Miller had cleaned herself, she later slept in Hitler’s bed.
Lee Miller Movie
The first screening of Miller’s biopic featuring Kate Winslet as the eponymous character was recently shown at the Toronto Film Festival. Lee is due for general release imminently after the project was announced back in 2015.
Miller pushed the boundaries of what female photojournalists could be in the mid-20th century. She felt that photography was “ideally suited to women as a profession, for it seems to me that women are quicker and more adaptable than men,” she said.
“And I think they have an intuition that helps them understand personalities more quickly than men.”
American-born Miller became a model in New York City in the 1920s after a chance encounter with Conde Nast. Miller later trained in photography in Paris and was in London when the Second World War began.
Miller documented the Blitz bombing of the U.K. capital and covered the war for Vogue magazine — entering Europe in the final year of World War II where she witnessed Nazi war crimes.
A book is also coming out showcasing Miller’s photography work which can be viewed here.
