Anyone have any info on Man Ray?

my_lonely_eye

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Hey guys, I have a photography assignment for my photo class on Man Ray, I already have his lifespan, and details on his early life. What else should I know about him besides the fact he did abstract art and inspired the X-ray?(So my teacher says)
 

copake_ham

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my_lonely_eye said:
.... What else should I know about him besides the fact he did abstract art and inspired the X-ray?(So my teacher says)
Click to expand...

Man Ray was born in 1890 in the US.

Rontgen's discovery in Germany of X-Rays is usually dated to 1895. He received a Nobel prize for it in 1901.

If Man Ray "inspired the X-ray", then that Man Ray was quite a progeny, wasn't he, man? :rolleyes:

You may want to ask for a tuition refund.
 

Michel Hardy-Vallée

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That he was a friend of the Surrealists (he took their portraits) and that a trip to the library will yield all sorts of good books about him.
 

Michel Hardy-Vallée

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Oh, the X-Ray thing is probably because he called his sabbattier prints "rayographs" as a pun on his nom de plume. He did not invent X-Rays.
 

Wayne

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my_lonely_eye said:
Hey guys, I have a photography assignment for my photo class on Man Ray, I already have his lifespan, and details on his early life. What else should I know about him besides the fact he did abstract art and inspired the X-ray?(So my teacher says)
Click to expand...

That he made some really odd and not all that enjoyable films.



Wayne
 

Curt

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Rayogram
 

Krockmitaine

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As a librarian, I can tell you: go to your library and ask for a dictionnary of photography. Many of them exist

Marc
 

Timothy

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He used xrays as one of his methods of trying to do things "differently". I don't know if he even claimed that he was the first or only one to do that, but he just did still life studies using xrays. That might have "inspired" others to try something similar....
 

Jim Jones

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Bernice Abbot was a technical assistant to Man Ray. Perhaps her writings may be illuminating. Books you might get on an inter-library loan are:
Foresta, Merry A., et al. Perpetual Motif: the Art or Man Ray. New York: Abbeville Press, 1988.
Ray, Man. Self-Portrait. Boston: Little, Brown, 1963.
Patrick Bade. Man Ray: Reveries Series. New York; Parkstone Press, 1999.
 

David Louis

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There is a lot of confusion about Man Ray and the mediums, and the name of the mediums, he used. His work was not made using x-rays. This is a common misconception. Although his prints are visually similar to x-ray images in that they contain translucent forms, they were not created using x-rays, they were created by putting objects into direct contact with film or printing paper and exposing the set up to visible light (this is known as a PHOTOGRAM). Ray did not invent this process! What he did do, though, was raise it from obscurity. In an effort to place his personal stamp on this technique he called his photograms RAYOGRAPHS…(not rayograms…there is really no such thing as a “rayogram”). You should definitely check out the books that Jim has recommended.
 

removed account4

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i have read 'self portrait' several times.
it is a great book in explaining who he was
and some of the thing he was thinking, and people
he was working with &C

his rayographs, are similar to maholy nagy's work with the same
technique. while man ray used paper cut outs, glass, film and solid objects, maholy nagy used shaped plastics ( as well ) and introduced typography and
montage to some of his photograms ( i think he coined the term photogram ).

you can see both of their works if you just google their names + rayograph /photogram ...

john
 

Michel Hardy-Vallée

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There is a good book about Berenice Abbott that contains both information about her and interviews: Berenice Abbott, American Photographer.

It details some of the tensions between her and him, seen from her persepctive. Great artists don't often have easy temperaments.
 

bjorke

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I hear he had a hot girlfriend.
This was a while ago, though.
 

Wayne

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They sell postcards of him sporting half a mustache at Barnes & Noble bookstores.


Wayne
 

Michael W

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Bill Brandt was also his assistant for a short time.

He was good friends with Marcel Duchamp.

He was in with the Surrealists in Paris & regarded as avant garde, while at the same time earning a lot of money as a fashion & portrait photographer. He ws also a pretty interesting painter.
 

jp80874

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Books to add to Jim Jones' list:
"Man Ray: Paris Photographs 1920-34", DGE, NY, 2000
"Man Ray" Aperture Masters of Photography series, 1997

"I hear he had a hot girl friend" Bjorke
One after another. My favorite with a reasonable connection here was,
photographer, Vogue fashion model, and live in assistant Lee Miller.
"I was in love with her" said Man Ray. Who wasn't?
Her lips appear in "The Lovers", the cover and page 210 "Self Portrait, Man Ray.

John Powers
 

Ed Sukach

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Man Ray also did a lot of work with Solarization (more properly, psuedo-solarization), and a characteristic of that is the "Sabbatier Effect."

Someone once wrote that a conversation was once overheard where Man Ray shouted out, "DAMN IT!!, Sabby! How many times have I told you ... DON'T open the door when the red light is on!!"
 

Inayat Noor

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In 2003 Steve Hodel wrote a book about his father being the killer of "The Black Dahlia". Chapter 17 of the book, "Black Dahlia Avenger" discusses the author's father, Dr. Georger Hill Hodel and Man Ray along with others being influenced by the Marquis de Sade. The author even goes into detail comparing poses by Man Ray's models to the positioning of Betty Short's "The Black Dalhia" body.

I personally don't agree with the author, and I don't know if what he says about Man Ray in the book is true. I am just pointing out this book contains information on the darker side of Man Ray and others such as John Huston.
 

weststarflyers

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May want to get a copy of "Man Ray" - essays by Emmanuelle de L'Ecotais and Katherine Ware. Warning: It is a huge and heavy volume.
 

jp80874

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Aperture 186, Spring, 2007 has an article, "On the Art of Lee Miller"; former fashion model; live in girl friend, assistant and model for Man Ray; and photographer. There are several of her photographs, one of Man Ray and his next model/live in, and a self portrait of Lee. The author of the article, Mark Haworth-Booth, became curator of photographs for the Victoria and Albert Museum the year she died. He has spent the last two years preparing an exhibition and writing a book called "The Art of Lee Miller", with much help from her son.

John Powers
 

RobLewis

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He took up photography to have photographs of his sculptures, which consisted of weird things like unravelled lamp shades, clothes irons with nails glued to them, and a painting with a doorbell wired into it. (Which didn't actually ring)

Also, he used to drive around yellowstone in an old station wagon taking pictures from the roof. Oh wait, that was someone else...
 
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Roger Hicks

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my_lonely_eye said:
Hey guys, I have a photography assignment for my photo class on Man Ray, I already have his lifespan, and details on his early life. What else should I know about him besides the fact he did abstract art and inspired the X-ray?(So my teacher says)
Click to expand...

I don't wish to appear rude, but perhaps some real (= library) research might be a better idea than asking people who might be tempted to mislead you deliberately, as I was. The big drawback to the internet is that you need to know a lot about your subject before you can judge what information is valid. The observation that he 'inspired the X-ray' suggests that either you or your teacher knows almost nothing about Man Ray, X-Rays or basic research.

Again, sorry if this appears harsh, but it is an excellent illustration of the dangers of internet 'research'.

Cheers,

R.
 
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