Man Ray/ Man Ray - cult photographer of the twentieth century
History of photography

Man Ray(1890-1976) - French and American artist, photographer and film director, whose work had a huge influence on avant-garde art throughout the 20th century: from Dada and surrealism to abstract and commercial photography.

Man Ray

From October 30 to January 19 at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts named after A.S. For the first time in Russia there is a retrospective exhibition of Pushkin, “Man Ray. Portraits". It presents more than 100 photographs taken by the maestro over 60 years, from 1916 to 1976. © Emmanuel Radnitsky, this is actually the name of Man Ray, born on August 27, 1890 in Philadelphia, where his family had recently emigrated from the Kovno province Russian Empire. Seven years later the family moved to Brooklyn, New York. Four more years later, in 1912, due to frequent anti-Semitic attacks, she was forced to change her last name to Ray. When the young man turned 22, he took the name Man - transforming his real name - Emmanuel, Manni. Soon, the name Man Ray began to sound like a single, united name. It was this name that was destined to become famous.

Man Ray with early age showed a high interest in painting. Therefore, in 1908, after graduating from school, he decided to become an artist. Early works classics differ in form and content. Young artist, in search of himself, tries various styles and directions, including cubism, futurism, and abstraction. He was the first among the masters to use a paint sprayer, the so-called airbrush, in painting. All his work is imbued with avant-gardeism, which is so inherent in these times. In 1915, he met the artist Marcel Duchamp, one of the leaders of Dadaism, thanks to whom he actively immersed himself in avant-garde art: he published the New York Dada magazine and created the Anonymous Society, an American organization of avant-garde art.

2. Portrait d’Alfred Stieglitz, 1913

3. Invention, 1916

4. The Rope Dancer Accompanies Herself with Her Shadows, 1916.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York

The work of Alfred Stieglitz, then one of the most influential artists, photographer and philanthropist, had a great influence on the young man. Man Ray became interested in photography at his suggestion. Ray was attracted by the possibilities of photo collage - combining real and fictional images in one image. He buys his first camera in order to take pictures of his own works - paintings, sculptures and compositions, then of friends and acquaintances, and later, in order to earn money, he began to accept orders from everyone who needed such services. In 1920 he began working as a portrait photographer. Man Ray's popularity gradually grew and in the early 1920s he became one of the most sought-after and highly paid photographers in Paris. Soon, being photographed by Man Ray began to be considered prestigious.

5.

The number of famous and famous whose portraits were created by Man Ray is impressive: James Joyce, Tristan Tzara, Jean Cocteau, Louis Aragon and Andre Breton, Gertrude Stein and Elsa Schiaparelli, the Duchess of Windsor and Margaret Oppenheim, Igor Stravinsky and Erik Satie, famous French singers Juliette Greco and Yves Montand, Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali, Le Corbusier, Sergei Eisenstein, Robert Delaunay and many, many more.

6.

Man Ray never took his photographs seriously; in his youth, photography was a way to earn money, then it became an outlet, a means of switching attention from painting to sculpture. As Man himself said, he only photographs what is not interesting to draw. But the whole world knows Man Ray primarily as a brilliant photographer, whose images of the faces of the era are eye-catching.

By transferring his artistic vision to film, Man Ray discovered a different side of photography, filling it with secrets, hints and halftones. He was not afraid to experiment, which is why such techniques as radiography and solarization appeared. With radiography, an image is obtained by directly exposing objects to photosensitive paper - the objects appear deformed and refracted, and the solarization effect was obtained by repeated exposure of the negative - objects, faces and bodies acquire mystical shapes.

7.

In the 1930s, Man Ray began working actively for fashion magazines - Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Vu and Vanity Fair. He was invited to Harper’s Bazaar by the magazine’s legendary art director Alexey Brodovitch, whose arrival radically changed first the appearance of Bazaar, and then the appearance of the entire American glossy. To transform the magazine, Brodovich attracted the most avant-garde artists who had common friends with Man Ray - Dali, Chagall, Raoul Dufy, Miro, Cocteau and many others, but only Man Ray was the first and for a long time the only sur-photographer who mixed different genres art. It is Man Ray who is the author of the famous photograph Coco Chanel.

8.

Most famous work Man Ray recognized "Ingres' Violin", which became an iconic image of the twentieth century.
http://fullfashion.me/archives/3365%20%20%20photomaster:%20%D0%9C%D0%B0%D0%BD%20%D0%A0%D1%8D%D0%B9%20(Man %20Ray)%20_%201890-1976
The well-known Kiki de Montparnasse, the muse of all the famous artists of Paris, posed for this photo. Man Ray’s work is something of a photographic pun, an “untranslatable play on words,” or rather images.

"Ingres' violin" is a literal translation of the French idiom violon d'Ingres(literally: this is his “strong point”, his weakness, his favorite activity). This expression owes its origin to the famous French artist Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867), who played the violin well. Since then, the French began to call every artistic hobby by his name.

Man Ray, real name Emmanuel Radnitzky, is an American artist, photographer and film director. He invented the “solarization” technique and was the first to experiment with glass and negatives.

Born August 27 1890 1908 By 1912

Start of a career

1910

IN 1924

Photodelo

IN 1922

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Man Ray, real name Emmanuel Radnitzky, is an American artist, photographer and filmmaker. He invented the “solarization” technique and was the first to experiment with glass and negatives.

Born August 27 1890 years in Philadelphia in a Jewish family of emigrants from Russia. A few years later, his family moved to New York. Here Ray studied art during the 1908 By 1912 year: he graduated National Academy drawing in New York, and then attended drawing and watercolor classes at the Ferrer Center. He often went to galleries contemporary art, experimented a lot, tried himself in abstraction, cubism and futurism.

Start of a career

Ray first began experimenting with photography after 1910 year. He photographs relatives, friends, and gallery visitors looking at his own paintings. The artist was forced to take up photography professionally by necessity. At first his work was not in demand, and Ray began offering photography services to his friends and artists. The circle of his clients begins to expand every month.

IN 1924 year one of the most famous works Man Ray – collage “Ingres’ Violin” (Le Violin d’Ingres). The photographer loved and knew how to work with nudes. He photographed ordinary models and celebrities of Parisian high society.

Photodelo

IN 1922 Man Ray conducted an experiment: he placed large glass negatives on a sheet of photographic paper, illuminated by a red lamp. Turns the lamp on briefly, then turns it off. And develops the photographs. All objects in the photograph are deformed by the glass touching the paper. And what was exposed to the light stood out in relief against a black background.

Solarization is another interesting innovation of the photographer. This is the result of repeated exposure to the negative. At the same time, ordinary objects, faces, body parts turned into phantasmagoric and mysterious images.

In the thirties, Ray did a lot of photography, creating portraits and surreal clothing designs that were published in the pages of Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Vu and Vanity Fair. IN 1940 Man Ray returned to the United States, where he was known only as a photographer.

IN 1951 year, Man Ray and his wife Juliette Brauner returned to Paris, where he continued his studies in painting and sculpture. To 1960 's Man Ray did not exhibit his work. But after in 1961 year he received gold medal at the Venice Photobiennale, Ray's exhibition opened in Paris, and in 1966 year - a retrospective exhibition in Los Angeles.

Man Ray died in 1976 in his studio in Paris at the age of 86.

Most famous works:

1931 Solarization

1936 Untitled

1945 Juliet & Margaret Nieman

"Ingres' Violin" became business card one of the most famous photographers of the twentieth century. Mana Ray(Emmanuel Radnitsky), his programmatic work, as well as classics of photography. In one metaphor, he managed to combine so many meanings that this work still gives rise to endless variations on the theme of “the female body as a musical instrument.”

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres was French painter first half of the 19th century V. He entered the history of art thanks not only artistic skill, but also musical talent: Ingres was passionate about playing the violin. He even performed in famous French orchestras and played music with Franz Liszt. So in French the phraseological unit “Ingres violin” appeared, which can be interpreted as “weakness”, “unprofessional hobby”, “horse”, “second nature”. The multiple meanings of this phraseological unit were skillfully played up by the American photographer Man Ray in his most famous work.

Man Ray knew Ingres’s work well and admired his “Bather.” This picture gave him the idea for photography. In the bends female body the photographer saw the outline of a violin and, using a collage of two black marks on the naked back, created the “Ingres Violin” that made him famous. It is interesting that photography was also a kind of “Ingres’ violin” for him - Man Ray began as an artist, but his paintings were not successful, and out of need and despair he turned to photography. This “unprofessional hobby” soon brought him both money and fame.

In addition to playing on the meanings of French phraseological units, Man Ray in this work builds his own semantic multilayer composition. “There is a different level of ambiguity here. The undoubted artistry and poetry of the photograph itself lies in the acute contradiction of the combination of physicality and materiality, the synthesis of flesh and a wooden object. Modern objectivity human body and the sounds of music…” writes S. Pukhachev.

For the famous photograph, the model Alice Pren, known in the artistic circles of Paris, better known as Kiki from Montparnasse, posed for the artist. We worked with her Amedeo Modigliani, Chaim Soutine, Fujita and others, but it was thanks to the photographer that the whole art world learned about her.

After Man Ray moved to France, Kiki became his favorite model, and then his mistress. Kiki was for him the instrument with which he performed his masterpieces - she herself was his “Ingres violin”. They lived together for 6 years, and during this time Man Ray created many of her original photographic portraits.

Man Ray was an avant-garde artist who promoted the aesthetics of the absurd. Together with Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia, he founded the New York branch of Dadaism and published the first and only issue of the magazine “Dada in New York” in 1920. But things did not go beyond the first exhibitions, the works of Dadaists in America were not successful, and Man Ray decides to move to Paris. And then fame came to him as an avant-garde photographer who set a new direction for the development of photography, turning it into art.

Life is like an Amazing Journey.

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Man of the era, classic of world photography, great artist and creator. This is exactly how one can characterize the eldest son of Jewish emigrants - Mani Luria and Meilakh Radnitsky. He was born on August 27, 1890 in Philadelphia, where his family had recently emigrated from the Kovno province of the Russian Empire. They called him Emmanuel. Emmanuel Radnitsky. But this name was not destined to become famous. Seven years later the family moved to Brooklyn, New York. Four more years later, in 1912, due to frequent anti-Semitic attacks, she was forced to change her last name to Ray. Looking ahead, when the young man turned 22, he took the name Man - thus transforming his real name - Emmanuel, Manni. Soon, the name Man Ray began to sound like a single, united name.

Man Ray: masculine, noun.

There will always be people who look only at the technique of execution - their main question is “how”
while others, who are more inquisitive, are interested in the “why.”
For me personally, an inspiring idea has always meant more than other information. Man Ray

Man Ray showed a keen interest in painting from an early age. Therefore, in 1908, after graduating from school, he decided to become an artist. The classic's early works differ in form and content. The young artist, in search of himself, tries various styles and directions, including cubism, futurism, and abstraction. He was the first among the masters to use a paint sprayer, the so-called airbrush, in painting. All his work is imbued with avant-gardeism, which is so inherent in these times. The work of Alfred Stieglitz, then one of the most influential artists, had a great influence on the young man.

The first was held in New York in 1915 personal exhibition artist, which, however, did not bring him much popularity or commercial achievements. Around this time, Man Ray acquired a camera, mainly to photograph his creations. In the future, it was his photographic works that would bring him worldwide popularity. Now, under the influence of his associates Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabio, Man Ray plunges headlong into the new Dadaist movement.

In 1920, Man Ray became a co-author of the avant-garde review “New York Dada”, dreaming of making it a periodical. However, the dream was not destined to come true for a number of financial and organizational reasons. Displeased with this turn of events, the artist moves to Paris.
After moving, he successfully participates in various Dada exhibitions, maintains close relationships with many representatives of the European avant-garde, achieves recognition and respect in the field of Dada and surrealism, and his range of interests expands. Among them you can see paintings, Dada objects, and collages. Man Ray's most famous Dada object is the work "The Gift", which is an iron with fourteen copper nails glued to the sole. It’s hard to imagine, but being so popular and well-known, the author’s works do not enjoy commercial success.

This is where his experiments in photography come into play. It turned out that photography can give the author much-needed financial independence. He photographed exhibitions and openings, visitors and the work of artists, his friends and their loved ones. Starting small, Man Ray quickly gained momentum in this field and soon became one of the most sought-after and expensive photographers in Paris. Increasingly, nude images appear in his works, and this will forever remain one of his favorite subjects, both in painting and photography. At the same time, until the end of his days, Man Ray treated photography as a lower form of art.

In 1922, Man Ray discovered a method for creating photographs of images without using a camera. It happened by accident. Among the already exposed sheets, somehow there was one blank, unexposed one. When foreign objects fell on the still wet sheet and the light turned on, the outlines of these objects were displayed on the sheet. He called them nothing else - “reiographs”, and put deep meanings into these paintings that were understandable only to a few.

Another important discovery of the photographer was the effect of solarization, repeated exposure of the negative. The photographs turned out mysterious and the images unique.
A significant event in Man Ray's life was his meeting with famous singer and model Kiki de Montparnasse. She was so popular and influential that, having become a model and also the author’s mistress, she brought him considerable fame and respect in the eyes of Parisians.
A collage image of Kiki under the intriguing title “Ingres’s Violin” was published in 1924, and very quickly gained popularity throughout the world.
But don’t think that he only photographed Kiki. Among his models were ordinary people, and representatives of the Parisian elite.

In 1929, Man Ray got a young and pretty assistant, Lee Miller. Their cooperation and warm romantic relationship lasted three years, and were quite fruitful for both. Rumor has it that some of Man Ray's works from the early 1930s were made by her. But in 1932, the girl chose to separate, developing her own career, and left for New York. Man Ray was very opposed to this, but soon found himself a new assistant, Berenice Abbott. Together with her, Man Ray discovered the talent of the young French photographer Eugene Atget to the general public.

To Man Ray’s deep regret, due to the escalating military situation, in 1940 he had to return to the United States of America, leaving everything that was most precious to him in Paris - home, work, friends, new young love Edie Fidelin and almost all of his creations.

A big shock for him was the news that in America he was known only as a great photographer. Disappointed by this, Man Ray renounces picking up a camera, and all subsequent years he stubbornly paints, creates sculptures and teaches painting. Of course, all this brings practically no income. He lives thanks to the capital collected in France. Man Ray’s entire attitude towards photography fits into the phrase he once threw out: “To create is a divine destiny, to copy is human.”

The author married the dancer and fashion model Juliette Brauner in 1946. Soon they had a little daughter, Anna. And as soon as the family had the opportunity, namely in 1951, they returned to Paris. There he stubbornly continues to boycott any photographic activity, does not take part in photo exhibitions, and is engaged in painting and sculpture. But even despite this, his reputation as a photographer is still growing.

A new stage in the importance of photography in Man Ray's life begins in 1961, when he receives a gold medal at the Venice Photobiennale. Soon, the author's personal exhibition takes place in Paris, and in 1966 - in Los Angeles. Now Man Ray exhibitions are regularly held around the world. They are organized by the Man Ray Foundation, which was established by his wife after his death. The Foundation owns the copyright to most of his works.

The great creator, artist and photographer died in Paris, within the walls of his native studio in 1976. He was not much or little then - 86 years old. Buried in Montparnasse Cemetery. “Impartial, but not indifferent,” says the epitaph carved on his grave.

From "Kiki's Memoirs", publishing house Salamandra P.V.V., 2011

The most famous model of the twentieth century, she inspired Soutine and Modigliani, Fujita and Calder, Brassai and Picabia, was the lover of Man Ray and the friend of Jean Cocteau and Max Ernst.

I met an American, the best photographer. I'm going to pose for him. I like his accent and his mysteriousness.

He tells me: “Kiki, don’t look at me like that! You're upsetting me!

Man Ray. Kiki in Man Ray's apartment on the Rue La Condamine (1921)

I went to the cinema to see “The Lady of the Camellias”. So we sat, holding hands, and Vasilyeva was with us (I hardly know her). She looked at us knowingly. And so he becomes my lover. The old one is getting ready to leave, and I can’t decide to follow him.
He's leaving.
I'm staying!
I continue to live as if nothing happened.

My new lover not too rich, but we have enough to eat, and we satisfy our hunger either at Delma’s, or at Bretelle’s or Rosalie’s.

Man Ray. Kiki (1925)

He takes pictures of people in our room, and in the evening I lie stretched out on the bed while he works in the dark. I can see his face, illuminated by a red light: he looks like the devil in the flesh, and I, on pins and needles, can’t wait for him to finish. We communicate with the public called Dadaists, and some of them are called surrealists. As for me, I don’t see much difference between them! Among them are Tristan Tzara, Breton, Phillipe Soupault, Aragon, Max Ernst, Paul Eluard and others...

Francis Picabia - Portrait of Man Ray (1925)

We spend our nights in conversations, which don’t bore me at all, although I don’t understand anything about them.

I admire his work - he does very beautiful photos. What makes the greatest impression on me is the photograph of the Marquise Casati, taken through a glass bowl with water and leaves. The Marquise moved slightly, and this had an amazing effect.
I must tell you that in this simple and small hotel room the entire aristocracy and the most famous people of today stayed with him.

Man Ray never stopped being an artist or a photographer. His paintings are also quite amazing. Just like in his photographs, the paintings contain only three colors - black, white and gray. Man Ray despairs, thinking that I have black tastes: I love bright colors too much!
But he treats the black race with love...

bonus: doc. film (1998)

FOR REFERENCE:

Man Ray: biography

There will always be people who look only at the technique of execution - their main question is “how”, while others, more inquisitive, are interested in “why”. For me personally, an inspiring idea has always meant more than other information.

Man Ray: masculine, noun. Synonym: playfully rejoice, enjoy.
Marcel Duchamp

Man Ray was born on August 27, 1890 into a Jewish family that had recently emigrated to America from the Kovno province of the Russian Empire. In 1897, the family moved to New York and settled in Brooklyn. At that future time famous artist and the photographer's name was Emmanuel Radnitzky - only in 1912 did his parents, fearing anti-Semitic attacks, change their last name to Ray. Twenty-two-year-old Emmanuel, whom relatives and friends called Manny, took the name Man. Soon they began to call him Man Ray, without dividing these two words into a first and last name.

Man Ray became interested in painting early and, having received a high school diploma, decided to become an artist. In his first works one can notice the imitation of old masters, but soon he was captured by new avant-garde trends that literally tore apart the art of the early 20th century. The young man often visited the gallery “291” by Alfred Stieglitz - at that time one of the most influential galleries of modern art, he experimented a lot, tried his hand at abstraction, cubism, and futurism. He was the first to use a paint sprayer in painting, introducing it into use by artists under the name airbrush. The first exhibition took place in 1915 young artist; in the same year, together with Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabio, he became an active participant in the Dada movement in New York, greatly contributing to the spread of this extremely important movement for 20th-century art in the United States.

His friend and colleague Marcel Duchamp glorified his name by working in the “ready-made” technique, which, with some approximation, can be translated into Russian as “Technique of ready-made objects.” Let's say, in 1917, he took an ordinary urinal, placed it on a pedestal, signed and dated it (just like an artist in a painting) and presented it at an art exhibition under the name “Fountain”. Two years later, he purchased a small reproduction of Mona Lisa, painted on a mustache and goatee, and thoughtfully named his creation “L.H.O.O.Q.” and... also brought it to the public's attention. The scandal was stunning, but even more grandiose was the success - both of the artist himself and of the new direction in art.

Man Ray tried to keep up with his older comrade, although his “ready-mades” were much less scandalous. So, for example, in 1920, he took a sewing machine and an umbrella, packed them in thick burlap, tied it all with rope and, of course, placed this work in art gallery. Of course, no one could understand what kind of structure this was, and the name “The Mystery of Isidore Dukas” did not bring much clarity. But she wasn’t needed!

In 1920, Man Ray and Duchamp published the review “New York Dada” - according to the authors’ plans, this was to be the first issue periodical, however, due to a number of organizational and financial difficulties, the second issue of the magazine was never published. “Dada cannot live in New York,” said the disgruntled artist, and in 1921 he left for Paris.

In the Old World, Man Ray entered the circle of the best representatives of the European avant-garde and received recognition as one of the largest Dadaists and surrealists. He participated in exhibitions and maintained close relationships with Tristan Tzara, Jean Cocteau, Max Ernst, Salvador Dali, Paul Eluard, Pablo Picasso, Andre Breton, and many other representatives of the artistic elite. His range of interests was very wide: painting, collages, finished objects. Among them, "The Gift" is Man Ray's most famous non-photographic work, marking his transition from Dada to Surrealism. The artist took an iron, glued fourteen copper nails to its sole and called this little useful structure “Gift.” The iron was exhibited at Man Ray's first Paris exhibition, gained well-deserved fame, but by the end of the exhibition disappeared without a trace - later Man Ray made several original copies, one of which is kept in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The first experiments with photography date back to the early 1910s; at that time, the young artist used a camera to photograph his own works. Many years later, perhaps somewhat exaggerating, he would write: “Only by photographing my paintings did I discover what was hidden in them.” In 1914, he purchased his own camera and, using the advice of Alfred Stieglitz, quickly mastered it. At first, he photographed relatives and acquaintances, gallery visitors looking at paintings and, of course, artists - by the way, it was with such a photograph that his friendship with Marcel Duchamp began. Every year the young man became more and more interested in the new opportunities that photography opens up for creative people. While still in New York, he experimented a lot - he moved the camera during exposure, smeared the lens with gel, and built his compositions from the most unexpected objects. However, Man Ray's pre-Paris experiments were nothing more than an "artist's quest." And having arrived in Paris, as we have seen, Man Ray was in no hurry to exchange his brush for a camera.

Man Ray was inspired to take up photography professionally... by necessity. Despite the success, despite the crowds of people visiting his exhibitions, the young artist could not sell anything. He offered the services of a photographer to his artist friends - he photographed their work; them at work or after it; their mistresses, wives, children and clients and so on and so forth. The circle was constantly expanding, Man Ray received more and more profitable and prestigious orders: he soon became one of the most sought-after and highly paid Parisian photographers.

Soon a very important meeting took place in Man Ray's life. “One day I was sitting in a cafe,” he later recalled, “and the waiter appeared to take my order. Then he approached a table where some girls were sitting, but refused to serve them: they were not wearing hats. A terrible scandal broke out." Man Ray invited the girls to his table and ordered them drinks. This is how he met Kiki de Montparnasse (real name Alice Prehn), famous singer and a model, a real queen of Parisian bohemia - for example, Ernest Hemingway said that she had no less influence than the English queen. Soon Kiki became the photographer's muse, his model and lover. This alone made him famous - in the eyes of Parisians, the chosen one of Kiki de Montparnasse a priori could not be mediocrity or mediocrity.

In 1924, Man Ray published one of the most famous works of photographic art - a collage image of Kiki under the surreal title "Ingres' Violin" ("Le Violin d" Ingres). It is difficult to say anything intelligible about this photograph, it is difficult to translate it into words Moreover, the image is least of all a photograph of a nude; I dare say that Kiki plays the same role in it as the iron in “The Gift” or the umbrella in “The Mystery of Isidore Dukas.” clean water, more of a portrait inner world the artist than the reality around him. In this case, the camera is nothing more than a means of revealing this world; Man Ray could just as easily have used a pencil or a brush.

However, do not think that all of Man Ray's photographic images were surreal objects. Many of his works were photographs of nudes; he knew how and loved to work with them. In addition to Kiki, he photographed many others - from ordinary models to famous representatives of the Parisian society and demimonde. “The nude body has always been one of my favorite subjects in both painting and photography. And I admit that it's not just for artistic reasons." These words could be signed by, say, Helmut Newton, Bob Carlos Clark or any other famous or not so famous photographer or artist.

In 1929, Man Ray was approached in a bar by pretty girl: “My name is Lee Miller,” she said, “I’m your new student.” He replied that he was not taking students, and that he was actually going to leave. “I know,” the petitioner was not embarrassed, “I’m going with you.” Thus began a period of collaboration and love between two talented photographers. “We lived together for three years,” Lee Miller later recalled, “My name was Madame Man Ray, that’s how they do it in France.”

Their cooperation was very fruitful. At first, Lee Miller only developed and printed photographs, then she began to assist her boss in the studio or even took photographs on her own, so it is quite possible that some of the works of the early 1930s bearing the name of Man Ray were made by his “student”. In 1932, she left for New York: her teacher suffered greatly and even threatened to commit suicide, but soon found himself a new model and assistant.

From the very beginning of his photography career, Man Ray constantly experimented with new techniques. In 1922, he rediscovered the method of creating photographic images without a camera. “At night I developed the newly exposed plates,” he recalled, “and the next day, in the evening, I began to print. Apart from trays and bottles with chemical solutions, beakers and a box of photographic paper, I had no other laboratory equipment. I simply placed large glass negatives onto a sheet of photographic paper laid out on a table and illuminated by a red light. I lit the lamp hanging from the ceiling for a few seconds, and then developed the photographs. It was during this development that I came across a way to take photographs without a camera: I called such photographs “rayographs.” Under the negatives, among the already exposed sheets, there was one blank, unexposed one. First I exposed several sheets of paper to the light, which I developed together later. I waited in vain for several minutes for the image to appear. Regretting that I had ruined the paper in vain, I mechanically placed a glass funnel, a beaker and a thermometer in the bath on top of the wet paper. I turned on the light: an image appeared before my eyes. But these were not simple outlines of objects: they were deformed and refracted by more or less contact with the paper glass objects, and the part directly exposed to the light stood out in relief against a black background. I remember that as a child I once put fern leaves in a frame. By exposing them to the sun, I got a white negative of these leaves. My radiographs were based on the same principle, but they added a three-dimensional effect and a whole range of values.”

Another discovery of the photographer, also known long before him, but practically unused, was solarization - interesting effect, which is obtained by repeated exposure of the negative. He turned solarization into artistic technique, as a result of which ordinary objects, faces, and body parts were transformed into fantastic and mysterious images.

In addition to avant-garde photography various styles and directions Man Ray became famous as a master of photographic portraiture, as one of best photographers for fashion magazines, collaborating with Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Vu and Vanity Fair. Together with Berenice Abbott, who was his assistant for some time, and then became famous photographer, Man Ray brought the remarkable French photographer Eugene Atget to the attention of the surrealists, and then the wider public.

In 1940, Man Ray returned to the United States. This decision was not easy for him; he constantly postponed his departure until last day hoping for the best: first, that there will be no war; then, that France will remain aloof from military operations; when German troops entered Paris, that he would be able to sit out somewhere in the provinces. Ultimately, the situation became too explosive and Man Ray left for America, leaving in France his house, car, friends, fame as an avant-garde artist and one of the best Parisian photographers, almost all of his paintings (they, thank God, survived) and another great love- young dancer Edie Fidelin.

In America, it was a heavy blow for him to learn that he was known only as a photographer; no one even knew that he had any other artistic talents. Probably out of resentment, Man Ray completely abandoned photography. He painted paintings and even sometimes managed to sell them - but they were not very popular and did not bring in much income. He lived off the capital he brought from France, but, despite the impending lack of money, he refused - with very rare exceptions - offers to return to photographic activity. This is, if not the only one in history, then, according to at least, one of the most bright examples the artist’s rebellion against the mechanical means of art: “I draw what cannot be photographed, what comes from imagination or fantasy,” he said, “I photograph things that I am not interested in drawing: things that already exist.” Or another time: “Creating is a divine destiny, copying is a human destiny.” And he refused the “human” share: he designed chess pieces, painted pictures, and gave lectures. In general, compared to twenty years in France, it was a very calm life.

In 1951, Man Ray and his wife (he married dancer and fashion model Juliette Brauner in 1946) returned to Paris, where he continued to paint and sculpture for a quarter of a century. His reputation as a photographer was still high, despite the fact that he hardly ever picked up a camera. Occasionally, he did some commercial work: for example, in the late 1950s, the Polaroid company hired him to test a new film. He approached the task like a true surrealist - he took a series of photographs, pointing the camera in different directions without aiming, randomly pressing a button.

In the 1940-1950s, Man Ray did not take part in photo exhibitions, considering it beneath his dignity to participate in group ones and not receiving an offer to organize a personal one. In the 1960s, the situation changed: in 1961 he received a gold medal at the Venice Photobiennale, a year later there was an exhibition in Paris, and in 1966 a retrospective exhibition in Los Angeles. Since then, his exhibitions have been held regularly around the world. In 1999, ARTnews magazine named him one of the 25 most influential artists of the 20th century.

Man Ray died in 1976 in his studio in Paris at the age of 86. The epitaph on his grave reads: “Impartial, but not indifferent.” His wife organized the Man Ray Foundation, which owns the copyright to most of his works, organizes exhibitions, and publishes albums. In 1991, Juliette died; she was buried in the same grave with the epitaph “Together again.”