Blog Two - Man Ray

     Emmanuel Radnitzky was an artist who spent most of his career in Paris France. Radnitzky, or better known as Man Ray, was born in Philadelphia Pennsylvania on August 27th, 1890. Man Ray's greatest contribution to the art movement was his surrealist photograms. Surrealism was a trend in the early 20th century because people were very interested in dreams. Surrealism photography captures images that make viewers believe that they are peering into the dreams of the photographer. Man Ray created surrealism photographs without using a traditional camera. Man Ray used photograms to capture light on photo paper to create surreal images. Man Ray called his photograms "rayographs."

    Photograms are a camera less photographing process that exposes light to light sensitive paper. Objects can be placed on the paper and block the light from hitting the paper in certain areas creating silhouettes of objects. Objects can also be lifted above the paper so the light can work it's way around the object to create a softer and grey colored edge. A perfect example of this can be seen in the image taken by Man Ray below. The eggs are no flat and this can be seen because the light works its way around the surface of the egg creating the gradient from white, where no light reaches the paper, to grey, where some light reaches the paper. The black in the photogram is where light was directly exposed to the light sensitive paper. Man Ray's hands are grey in this image. This is because he did not place his hand directly on the paper. He lifted his hands off the paper so some light was able to get to the light sensitive paper.

 

Man Ray was an important artist in the development of art and photography. He expanded the boundaries of art and photography by capturing images without cameras. Man Ray and the rayogram inspired others to create photograms. Adam Fuss was one of the artists inspired by man ray. Fuss added his own twist to the art of photograms by adding color and making images extremely clear. Fuss continues Man Ray's surreal photography into the present day continuing to capture images without using cameras by using photograms.