Man Ray (1890–1976) was a man of his time and far ahead. With his conceptual approach and innovative techniques, he freed photography from established limitations and opened the doors to new ways of thinking about the medium.
As a close friend of Marcel Duchamp and André Breton, he was one of the few photographers who was counted among the Dadaists and Surrealists. In addition to his role as an avant-garde artist, he also worked as a fashion photographer, first for Vogue and later for Harper's Bazaar and Vanity Fair.
Man Ray, especially famous for his iconic photo Ingres' Violin from 1924 – which sold for a whopping in 2022 $12.4 million – has had a lasting influence in art, fashion and pop culture, with countless artists still referencing his work.
Published on the occasion of an exhibition at Photo Elysée and the centenary of André Breton's surrealist manifesto, this book offers a collection of more than one hundred and fifty portraits by Man Ray, mainly 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 in photographic techniques and compositions, Man Ray used the studio portrait – whether of artist and writer friends, or of the objects and sculptures he collected – as a space for 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
