Man Ray

Here is an example of the solarization done my Man Ray

Glass tears.

This one is an example of his "rayogram" or pictogram.

This is one of the very surrealist images

Man Ray was born in Pennsylvania in 1890. He was such an innovative photographer for his time. He was often just labeled as a modernist. He contributed so much to the photography side of surrealism, the dada movement and avant- garde. He considered himself a painter. At the beginning of his career he actually was a painter. He had a strong cubist influence in his paintings. After he got involved with the dada movement is when he abandoned painting and turned to photography. His photographs went well with the surrealist movement I think. For example, the image of the woman laying on the grass with the lips in the sky is something you would see in a surrealist style painting. The other techniques used were also very surreal, like solarization. He coined the term "rayograms" which is basically what we call pictograms today. He also reinvented solarization. Man Ray brought about or reinvented so many of the techniques we still use today.

"I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive. I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence."- Man Ray

Roy DeCarava

Over the last couple years I have seen the work of Roy DeCarava. He is one of my favorites photographers. I like the idea behind his work. He is know as the Harlem photographer. I decided to do my blog on him this week because he recently passed away at the age of 89. He changed the history of African- American art and lifestyle. He actually had 60 years of photography under his belt. His photography was revolutionary for his time. Looking at his photos, I see a similarity between them and quite a few photographers that I have written about already. However, they have a different quality to them. They are all of African-American life and people. His images gave insight into what it was like to live in Harlem New York. They provoke very different emotions than other "street photographers" if you will. I recently took a trip to Nashville, where I tried this type of photography. I shot many images of African- American elderly men who were "down on their luck." These didn't quite turn out the way I was expecting. Mine were a bit exploitive. I think that Roy DeCarava did a wonderful job documenting instead of exploiting.