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