In 1932, Lee Miller returned to New York from Paris and established her own commercial studio, where she quickly became a sought-after portrait photographer. . Lee took this photograph of the socialite and aspiring actress Dorothy Hale in 1934. . Hale appeared in the chorus of a Broadway staging of the Gershwin musical ‘Lady, Be Good’, and worked as a dancer and Ziegfeld girl before starring in Clare Boothe Luce’s play ‘Abide with Me’. Her second marriage, to the artist Gardner Hale, ended in tragedy in 1931 when her husband died in a car accident. She later became close to the artist Isamu Noguchi. . Hale died in 1938, and is believed to have taken her own life after growing despondent with her stalling career. Noguchi later said, ‘Dorothy ... travelled in this false world. She didn’t want to be second to anybody, and she must have thought she was slipping.’ She was later immortalised in a painting by Frida Kahlo. . Miller’s portrait of Hale is on show at Les Recontres d’Arles, which closes on 25th September 2022. . Prints of this image are available to purchase on our website www.leemiller.co.uk (link in bio). Discover more about the people Lee Miller encountered by subscribing to our LoveLee membership. Visit www/patreon.com/leemillerarchives to join! . . . Image: Dorothy Hale [actress], Lee Miller Studios, Inc., New York, USA 1934 by Lee Miller © Lee Miller Archives, England 2022. All rights reserved. www.leemiller.co.uk . . . . . #leemiller #leemillerarchives #femalephotographer #blackandwhite #blackandwhitephotography #noiretblanc #noiretblancphotographe #fotographia #fotografo #fotographie