man ray 906
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A short biography:
Man Ray was born on August 27, 1890, in Philadelphia, and moved to New York with his family
seven years later. From 1909 to 1912 he studied at the Francisco Social Center Academy of Art,
New York while frequently visiting Alfred Stieglitz's gallery "291". He attended classes at the
Ferrer Center in 1912 for drawing and watercolors. Man Ray attempted to form an artist's
commune in 1913 with the poet Alfred Kreymborg. He had his first solo show at the Daniel
Gallery in New York in 1915, and around this time, he took up photography, the medium for
which he is best known. By 1916, Ray's photography had come into full swing, and he founded
the "society of Independent Artists" together with Marcel Duchamp and Walter Arensberg. In
1917, Man Ray created his first aerographs and went on to photographic and film experiments
with duchamp in 1920. In 1921, Ray invented the Rayographs and had his first important
exibition in the "Librairie Six", Paris. In 1922, Ray began his work with nude photography, and
takes photos for various magazines- fashion photos, and portraits. In 1923, Ray's first film was
shown, "Le retour a la raison". In 1925, he took part in his first surrealist exhibition in the galerie
Pierre, Paris, and was from then on associated with the surrealists. Man Ray's art did well, and he
had many shows in both France and America. Ray began to get more and more involved with the
surrealists and his works accompanied many poems and books. In 1940, Man Ray fled to the US,
shortly before Germany's occupation of France and he had exhibitions in Los Angeles, San
Franscisco, Santa Barbara, Pasadena, and New York. Man Ray returned to Paris in 1951, and in
1960, he had solo exhibitions in Photokina, Cologne. He was awarded the gold metal for
photography at the Biennale, in Venice. In 1963, he published his autobiography, entitled
"Self-Portrait" in London, and in 1966 he had his first large retrospective in the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art. Further retrospectives were shown all over Europe, and Man Ray had
several international solo exhibitions. He died November 18th, 1976 in Paris.
Man Ray, the artist:
Man Ray was a painter and photographer in the Dada, surrealist, and abstract art movements of
the 1920s and 1930s. In the beginning, he was a struggling young artist in New York. Man Ray
did not take up photography until he reached Paris in the early 20's; and he did so, initially out of
need rather than desire and also because no one, he felt could reproduce his paintings well enough,
and he wanted to take the matter in his own hands. Unable to sell his paintings, he turned to
fashion photography and portraiture- he became a portrait photographer to the intellectual
avant-garde. He was very successful in both areas. By 1921, Man Ray's work was causing
something of a sensation due to his use of natural light, sharp clear contrast and informal poses.
"His work seemed extreme or avant-guarde at a time when Pictorialism was still the predominant
style of photography in Europe." (Guggenheim website)
Man Ray's commercial success as a fashion and portrait photographer allowed him the freedom to
pursue experimental ideas related to his interest in the Dada art movement and later Surrealism.
He disregarded standards of art of his time, and his curious nature led to his discovery of the
"Rayograph," later to be called the photogram, and solarizations. He deliberately used "fault"
techniques for aesthetic purposes- "solarization (exposing the captured image to a flash of light
during development to produce a strikingly dark contour), granulation (emphasizing the silver
grains of the light-sensitive medium to give the picture an irregular pointed texture), negative
printing (reversing the black and white elements of a picture to alienate and enhance the impact of
the image), distortions (angling the enlarger to produce an oblique image of reality), relief
processing (placing a transparency over a slightly displaced negative to create a three-dimensional
effect on the ultimate print)" (Man Ray, pg. 9). These techniques became instruments of creative
design.
Man Ray not only experimented with technique, but also with the nude female body. He is quoted
to have said, "Speaking of nudes, I have always had a great fondness for this subject, both in my
paintings and in my photos, and I must admit, not for purely artistic reasons". The females feuled
Man Ray's imagination and inspired him to works of photographic ingenius. "The pictures exude
not blatant sex but veiled, exciting eroticism" (Man Ray, pg. 9). Many of Ray's subjects were
celebrities, but even when the subject remained anonymous, the observer could sense that the
woman in the photograph must have inspired Man Ray as a man, and as an artist.
Man Ray was "an artist of quick wit and a sincere disinterest in too much artistic self-absorbtion"
(Guggenheim website). He was an architect, painter, draughtsman, sculptor, writer, cabinet
maker, goldsmith, filmmaker and of course a photographer. Given the many fields in which he
demonstrated his talent, the fact that he is today known primarily for his photography, is due to the
great volume of his photographic work, and the number of his photographs published in books and
periodicals. To sum him up, Man Ray was a "master of the captured and created image, a man of
sparkling wit and a lover of beautiful women" (Man Ray, pg. 8)
