Man Ray (Masters of Photography, 8)

Briefly discusses Man Ray's approach to photography and gathers a selection of his portraits, nudes, abstracts, and still lifes

Born in 1890 in Philadelphia, Man Ray began as a painter, not taking up photography until 1915, around the same time he had his first one-man show of paintings in New York. A surrealist living in Paris during the twenties and thirties, he hoped to change or "transform" photography into a new kind of art. In 1922, an album of his first cameraless photos, the "Rayographs," were introduced, and a year later his first avant-garde film using the same technique was shown. During the forties he moved to Hollywood, where-- even though he still photographed-- painting once again became his main focus. After returning to Paris in 1952, he was awarded the Gold Medal for Photography at the Biennale, Venice in 1962. His work was also shown in leading museums in Paris, Los Angeles, Rotterdam, and Denmark. He died in France in 1976, and in 1988 was given a major retrospective exhibition with the National Museum of American Art (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.).