Lee Miller was first a Vogue model, then a Vogue photographer, who lived with Man Ray at the height of the 1930s in Paris. She learnt art photography from him, but later became a tough photo-reporter. She was married to Roland Penrose, one of the first collectors of the surrealists. Who can forget her beautiful lips stretching like a cloud over a sunset sky in the Observatoire photo-collage by Man Ray, who can forget her as a classic statue in The blood of the poet, the non plus ultra surrealist film?

Here are photos of her Paris years with Cocteau, Stravinski, Picasso, Max Ernst, Nush Eluard. For Lee Miller photographing the famous was once simply a leisurely way of documenting the lives of her pals.

In one photo of the pretty photographer by a colleague she stares out at you, sitting in Adolf Hitlers bathtub. She has left us a nice collection of cool and elegant period pieces, on show for the first time in Rome. Galleria Valentina Moncada, Via Margutta 54, tel. 063207956.