Artist research - Man Ray

Man Ray

Man Ray, born August 27th 1890, was an american modernist that spent most of his time in Paris, France. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties with both are informal. He produced work in a range of media but considered himself a painter at heart. He was best known in the art world for his 'avant-garde' photography and he was a renowned fashion and portrait photographer. Ray is also known for his photograms which he called 'rayographs' in reference to himself. During his time as an artist Ray allowed few details of his early or family life. He even refused to acknowledge that he has any other name other than Man Ray. The surviving pieces of Ray's early art show that from the beginning of his artistic career he was a great fan of the avant-garde, modernistic art. In 1963 he published his biography 'Self Portrait' which was then republished in 1999. He died in Paris on November 18th 1976 from a lung infection. 

Here are some examples of his work: 

I like Man Ray's work because he pushed the boundaries of art and the boundaries of what was acceptable and I admire him for that! He produced quite the range of photographs in his time and did his fair share of photo manipulation and he wasnt scared to try something new. I think Rays images work so well because at the time they were very controversial.  He also (obviously) created all of his work in the dark room, which in my opinion is very skilfull! The only thing I think could work better with man rays work would be the clarity , but obviously due to the times he was working in and the means he was working with this is to be expected. I would love to recreate some of man rays work digitally to see what they would look like.