Man Ray
(born Emmanuel Radnitzky; 1890–1976) https://www.manray.net/
Man Ray is celebrated for his Surrealist photographs and his camera-less photograms known as “rayographs.” But throughout his career, the American born artist produced major works across a wide range of artistic disciplines including painting, film, sculpture, printmaking, tapestry, and poetry.
I’m reading Man Ray’s book ‘Self Portrait’ at the moment which is actually a biography on his life and times, the book would make for a great movie, he talks about his lovers, hanging out with Picasso, Duchamp and many other artists.
After meeting Marcel Duchamp in New York, Man Ray packed up his paints and cameras and followed his friend (and sometimes collaborator) to Paris in 1921. As the principal American participant in the Dadaist movement and alongside Parisian Surrealist painters, Man Ray found the artistic freedom he so craved.
In addition to his studio practice, Man Ray worked on and off as a fashion photographer for magazines including Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue. Even while making photographs within a commercial context, Man Ray introduced elements of his avant-garde style including double exposures, multiple shadows, severed limbs, masks, and veils. Some of the artist’s most iconic images—like the portrait of Kiki de Montparnasse next to a wooden African mask (Noir et blanc, 1926)—were first published in fashion magazines.
