I do not photograph nature.
I photograph my visions.
Man Ray, quoted in PBS episode of American Masters
Emmanuel Radnitzky was born in 1890 in Philadelphia. A Jewish kid from a family of immigrants. Changed his name because America in the early 1900s wasn’t kind to Jewish artists with foreign-sounding names.
Painter, photographer, filmmaker. Dadaist. Surrealist. Moved to Paris in 1921 and never looked back. That’s where it happened, Montparnasse, the cafés, the studios, the parties. Everyone was there. Duchamp, his best friend. Hemingway. Stein. Joyce. Picasso.
Photography. That’s what he’s known for. But not regular photography, he fucked with it. Rayographs. Put objects directly on photographic paper, exposed them to light, created images without a camera. Shadows and shapes and abstract forms. Nobody was doing that.
Portraits of everyone. Photographed all the artists, all the writers, all the beautiful people. Made them look iconic. Made them immortal.
Kiki de Montparnasse. Alice Prin. His lover, his muse, his model. Le Violon d’Ingres, 1924… her back painted with f-holes like a violin. One of the most famous photographs of the 20th century. Their relationship was volcanic. Ended badly. They always do.
World War II, he fled to LA. Jewish artist in occupied Paris? He got out. But he came back in ’51. Kept working.
Died in 1976. Paris.
His epitaph says “unconcerned, but not indifferent.”
That’s it. That’s Man Ray. Didn’t give a shit about convention, about rules, about what photography was supposed to be. But he cared. He was paying attention. He saw everything.
Unconcerned, but not indifferent.
Shot on infrared film in Cimetière du Montparnasse. Signed Limited Edition 17” x11” print of 10; stamped on verso. Professional black & white printing on Hahnemühle fibre-based Matt paper.