An Image Diary

'The Road is Wider Than Long' us an image diary of a journey made across the Balkans from July to August 1938. The journey was made by two artists; 'Roland Penrose', who was a painter and writer, and 'Lee Miller', who was a fine art photographer. Penrose made the first edition of this book for Miller, drawn from his photographs and notes.


The photographs are accompanied by surrealist poetry and occasional illustrations and embellishments on some of the letters. I spent a lot of time looking through this book. As professional as the photography is, and the poetry complex, it feels very personal and elements of it reminded me almost of a school exercise book belonging to a young girl containing declarations of love in a day-dreaming doodle fashion. The composition is very simplistic by seems as though it is very well considered and thought out.

After researching more about Penrose and Miller, I have found that Lee Miller was most importantly A WOMAN, a model and successful photographer who worked for Vogue at one point in her career. Roland Penrose was her second husband, a British surrealist painter and curator. Miller became bored of her first marriage and life in Cairo, and returned to Paris in 1937 and met Penrose. This book is about their journey in 1938, which makes them a couple who had only known each other a year. This completely explains why the whole book feels so intimate and charming.


I like the little drawings and splashing of colour which make this book so beautiful. I think that my Visual Digital Diary could benefit from some photos being substituted by a drawing. This enables a lot more freedom about the message it's giving and makes it more personal.