Man Ray

La Cadeau, 1921

Untitled Rayograph, 1959

    Man Ray has always been a very ambiguous artist. He was born in 1890 in Philadelphia. Early 1900s, a lot of changes were happening in the States; Theodore Roosevelt came the 26th president after an assassination; while prosperity and peace treaties were happening, industrialization was also happening in some progressive cities. Man Ray was born in a Russian Jewish family but he was never deprived from any artistic surroundings and he was supported to follow his passion since his early years.

    He was mainly inspired by Dadaism and Cubism, his works was always experimental but also somehow intentional. He got very close to Marcel Duchamp, the pioneer of Dadaism, the famous artist who exposed a lavatory and called it The Fountain. I would call Man Ray, a generalist artist, because he juggled with every sort of art to finally to a focus on photography.

    During his early years in Paris, he accidentally created a photography technique; the photogram, that he called Rayograph. He would experiment with light exposure and aperture. I find his work fascinating because it brings in a satirical and dramatic perspective which I assume this is how he thinks. He embellishes the black and white photography with the types of work he creates.

    Even with his sculpture works, he brings in the discomfort of the viewer by making them think more about what he is trying to portrait. I love the fact that he leaves the viewer the freedom to interpret his works, even some of his dramatic movies. Unlike some artists who would literally address a subject, he would merge all his knowledge of abstraction and Dadaism and societal issues into a single beautiful piece of work.