Man Ray (1890–1976) was both a man of his time and far ahead of it. Through his conceptual approach and innovative techniques, he freed photography from established constraints and opened the door to new ways of thinking about the medium.
A close friend of Marcel Duchamp and André Breton, he was one of the few photographers considered part of the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. In addition to his role as an avant-garde artist, he worked as a fashion photographer, first for Vogue and later for Harper's Bazaar and Vanity Fair.
Man Ray is best known for his iconic 1924 photograph Ingres' Violin, which sold for an astounding $12.4 million in 2022. He has had a lasting influence on art, fashion, and pop culture, and countless artists continue to reference his work.
Published to coincide with an exhibition at Photo Elysée and the centenary of André Breton's Surrealist Manifesto, this book presents a collection of more than 150 portraits by Man Ray, primarily from the 1920s and 1930s.
The portraits feature icons of the Parisian art world such as Marcel Duchamp, Robert Delaunay, Georges Braque, Alberto Giacometti, and Pablo Picasso, alongside a selection of his fashion photography.
A pioneer of photographic techniques and compositions, Man Ray used studio portraiture—whether depicting artist and writer friends or the objects and sculptures he collected—as a space for the visual humor and experimentation characteristic of his artistic vision.
Man Ray: Liberating Photography - Nathalie Herschdorfer, Wendy Grossman
Pages: 224
Price: €40.03
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
