Work by Joseph Cornell

1932

Shows at the Julien Levy Gallery and the Brooklyn Museum

In 1932 Miller's work was shown in the Modern European Photography exhibition at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York and in the Brooklyn Museum's International Photographers, alongside Moholy-Nagy, Cecil Beaton, Margaret Bourke-White, Tina Modotti, Man Ray and Edward Weston. Reviewing it in Parnassus, Katherine Grant Sterne noted that Miller “has retained more of her American character in the Paris milieu”.

1932

Her own studio in New York

After leaving Man Ray and Paris in 1932 — in a dispute over the attribution of their joint work he is said to have slashed an image of her neck with a razor — Miller returned to New York and set up a portrait and commercial studio, with her brother Erik as darkroom assistant; clients included BBDO, Elizabeth Arden, Helena Rubinstein and Saks Fifth Avenue. That year she told the Poughkeepsie Evening Star that photography was perfectly suited to women as a profession: women were quicker and more adaptable than men and intuitively understood personalities faster.

1933

Her only solo exhibition, at Julien Levy's

In 1933 Julien Levy gave Miller the only solo exhibition of her life. Her portrait clients included the Surrealist Joseph Cornell, the actresses Lilian Harvey and Gertrude Lawrence, and the African-American cast of the Virgil Thomson–Gertrude Stein opera “Four Saints in Three Acts” (1934).

1934

Abandons her studio for Egypt

In 1934 Miller abandoned her studio to marry the Egyptian businessman and engineer Aziz Eloui Bey, who had come to New York to buy equipment for the Egyptian National Railways, and moved with him to Egypt.

1934

Married: Aziz Eloui Bey

1934–1937 · Residence

Cairo