About the artwork
This black-and-white photograph by Man Ray is part of a larger series of self-portraits. The artist, adjusting the lens of his camera, photographs himself in a mirror and develops the image using the solarization technique. This technique, discovered by accident, surrounds the model with contrasting contours, giving the print drawing-like qualities. He and his camera, isolated from their background, are the only subjects of the composition. Certain shapes, such as the camera or the photographer's hair, seem to dissolve into the background, giving the image the surrealist dimension Man Ray was looking for.
Expert opinion
The artist's self-portraits are among his most significant works. Solarization, also known as the Sabatier effect, is based on the uniform exposure of a print in progress to a particular light. It depends on so many uncontrollable and random elements that its effects are difficult to predict. This series of self-portraits bears witness to the nuances of this practice and the artist's mastery of it.
About the artist
Born in Philadelphia in 1890 and died in Paris in 1976, Emmanuel Radnitsy, known as Man Ray, was one of the leading artists of the French modern scene. In 1911, he frequented Galerie 291, opened by photographer Alfred Stieglitz, who championed modern art and photography in the United States. In 1915, Man Ray met Marcel Duchamp and joined the Dada movement, an avant-garde intellectual and artistic movement. Noticing the lack of interest in this movement on the American scene, he moved to Paris in 1921, where he met the Surrealists, who greatly influenced him. His fashion photographs and celebrity portraits were acclaimed, thanks in particular to his rediscovery of solarization. His surrealist experiments earned him the Cultural Prize of the German Photographic Society in 1966 and the Progress Medal of the Royal Photographic Society in 1974. Today, Man Ray remains a leading figure in photography.
“Everything can be transformed, distorted and eliminated by light. Its flexibility is exactly the same as that of a paintbrush.”
Additional info
Framed
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