Bermuda will soon have an opportunity to see why the work of celebrated US-born photographer Lee Miller (1907-1977) continues to cause such a stir wherever exhibitions of her work are held.

Thanks to hosts the Bermuda National Gallery and ACE gallery, simultaneous exhibitions are to be staged at their respective venues from May 16 to September 5 - and all it took was a chance remark by the late photographer's son and biographer, Anthony Penrose, for Mrs. Julie Sylvester Cabot, ACE Gallery director, to secure this coup for the Island.

Following a preview of the Lee Miller exhibition at the Helsinki Art Museum in Finland, which "overwhelmed" her, Mrs. Sylvester Cabot subsequently met Mr. Penrose at the opening reception.

"Someone mentioned I was from Bermuda, and he said, 'How fantastic. Why don't we have a Lee Miller show there?' " she says.

"I thought it would be a very interesting idea for Bermuda since there are so many Second World War buffs around the Island."

Not only that, but Mr. Penrose will attend the official opening at the Bermuda National Gallery on May 16, and give a lecture at the Bermuda National Gallery the following day in which he will chronicle his mother's life and work, and illustrate it with her words and pictures.

The Bermuda exhibition, which is being organised and lent by the Lee Miller Archive, will feature a selection of Ms Miller's photographic images (printed by Carole Callow), as well as reproductions of paintings by husband Roland Penrose, Picasso, May Ray, Eileen Agar and Dora Maar - artists who were all inspired by her beauty and free spirit. Some 30 pieces will be displayed at the ACE Gallery, with the bulk of the exhibition being shown at the Bermuda National Gallery.

Beautiful Lee Miller had an amazing career thanks to her fearlessness, energy and driving ambition. Initially, she achieved fame as a model for Edward Steichen and other well-known photographers. Then, after moving to Paris in the late 1920s, she began taking photographs herself, and soon established her reputation as a fashion photographer.

In Paris, she modelled for the artist Man Ray, in addition to being his assistant and lover. Together the duo experimented with 'solarisation' technique, which both used in their photographic work for special effect.

It was when Mr. Ray introduced Ms Miller to 'surrealism' that she found her identity as a photographer. The surrealist concept of the possibility of finding the marvellous in the mundane; the celebration of images from dreams; and the importance of freedom in all aspects of life, then became key guiding forces in the photographer's work.

Moving in surrealist circles, Ms Miller counted such famous artists of the time as Pablo Picasso, Paul Eluard, Jean Cocteau, Max Ernst and Leonora Carrington as good friends. Her style was influenced by surrealism, and she often used an unexpected angle of view. This culminated following her move to Egypt in 1934 when desert landscapes, whose appearances altered with the changing light, inspired her to take some of her most experimental and stylised photographs.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Ms Miller moved to London, England and began working for Vogue magazine. In addition to fashion assignments, she also captured the ravages the blitz exacted on the United Kingdom, including London.

In 1942, Ms Miller was one of the first women to be accredited as a US war correspondent, and she captured some of the most emotive images of the war. Her assignments in Europe included photographing the bombing of St. Malo and the liberation of Paris. She was also among the first reporters to document the liberation of the gruesome Dachau concentration camp.

"Lee Miller was the only woman at the (battle) front, and went places that men would not go," Mrs. Sylvester Cabot says. "Her picture of the funeral pyre that was Hitler's famous 'Eagle's Nest' retreat in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria, became famous. Life magazine reporters didn't get there for two days!"

Moving on to Munich afterwards, Ms Miller arrived at Hitler's former residence dirty and dusty and not having bathed for days. Soon after, a photograph of her enjoying a bath in the late F?hrer's tub, also became well-known . The many horrors of war which Ms Miller had witnessed throughout Europe, including the Romanian death camps, took their toll, however.

"She was never was the same afterwards," Mrs. Sylvester Cabot says.

The immediate aftermath of the war was a devastating anticlimax for Ms Miller and her journalistic colleagues, and she eventually returned to London to fulfil assignments for Vogue magazine. After many years on the road, her marriage to painter Roland Penrose produced a son, Anthony, and she settled down in England. Gradually, she gave up photography and focused passionately on cooking, and by the time she died in the 1960s she was virtually unknown.

Also unknown, until they were discovered years later, was a great collection of her photographs in the attic of her home - the legacy of a remarkable woman's work. Today, there is a strong resurgence in Ms Miller's work, with recent major exhibitions in Edinburgh, Dublin, Helsinki, Manchester, and currently at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. A major motion picture based on Ms Miller's life, starring Nicole Kidman with screenplay by Sir David Hare, is planned for release in 2006.

The Bermuda exhibition is being sponsored by the ACE Group of Companies, and curated by Mrs. Sylvester Cabot, who has also recently been appointed Curator of Contemporary Art at the famed state Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia - the first non-Russian ever to hold the post.

l A joint official opening for both Lee Miller exhibitions will be held in the Bermuda National Gallery on May 16. Thereafter, they will continue through September 5. Mr. Penrose's illustrated lecture, also in the Bermuda National Gallery, will take place on May 17 at 6 p.m. and be preceded by a reception at 5.30 p.m. To reserve tickets (members $5, others $10) ( 295-9428 or fax 295-2055.