Self Portrait: Man Ray

Man Ray's extraordinary autobiography, now in a lavishly illustrated paperback edition, reveals the entertaining life and times of this remarkable artist.
Legendary photographer, painter, creator of objects, and filmmaker, Man Ray was one of the most versatile and inventive artists of this century. From Greenwich Village to Paris to Hollywood and back to Paris, Man Ray figured prominently in the avant-garde, Dada, and Surrealist movements. Self Portrait is Man Ray's extremely frank autobiography, long unavailable in English. This new edition, now available for the first time in paperback, is fully illustrated with 250 pictures, in color and black and white. Many of these pictures had never before been published; others have become part of popular culture, such as The Gift, an iron studded with tacks, and The Lovers, his huge painting of lips floating in the Paris sky.

Born Emmanuel Radnitzky (1890-1976), Man Ray grew up in America but spent the greater part of his life as an emigre in Paris. Man Ray's art ranges from painting, sculpture, collage, constructed objects and photography. Beginning in 1921, he received hundreds of commissions for portraits and commercial work which were featured in publications such as Vogue, Vu, Harper's Bazaar and Vanity Fair. He was an American, but worked in Paris from 1921 to 1940, when Duchamp, Stieglitz, Picasso and Dali were among his colleagues. A member of the Dada art movement and the only American member of the Paris Surrealist movement, Man Ray considered himself an artist and thought of photography as a medium of artistic expression when used for more than reproduction. In describing his work, Man Ray once said, 'I paint what can not be photographed. I photograph what I do not wish to paint.'