Man Ray: Masters of Photography Series (Aperture Masters of Photography)
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Photography & Video
Man Ray: Masters of Photography Series (Aperture Masters of Photography) Details
About the Author Born in 1890 in Philadelphia, Man Ray began as a painter, not taking up photography until 1915, around the same time he had his first one-man show of paintings in New York. A surrealist living in Paris during the twenties and thirties, he hoped to change or "transform" photography into a new kind of art. In 1922, an album of his first cameraless photos, the "Rayographs," were introduced, and a year later his first avant-garde film using the same technique was shown. During the forties he moved to Hollywood, where-- even though he still photographed-- painting once again became his main focus. After returning to Paris in 1952, he was awarded the Gold Medal for Photography at the Biennale, Venice in 1962. His work was also shown in leading museums in Paris, Los Angeles, Rotterdam, and Denmark. He died in France in 1976, and in 1988 was given a major retrospective exhibition with the National Museum of American Art (Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.). Read more
Reviews
Like other books in the "Aperture" series, the print quality is outstanding, with images of an adequate size given the reasonable price, and an introductory essay, in this case by Jed Perl, that describes the artist's life and work in the context of the period. Any deficiencies stem from the subject matter. Ray was more of a conceptual experimenter than an artist; few of the images reproduced here display any sort of emotional depth beyond a superficial beauty or studied detachment. I can't help but think what Robert Mapplethorpe would have done with Ray's "Woman with Mask and Handcuffs, 1929;" I'm sure Mapplethorpe would have done better with Ray's flower images as well. The "Rayographs" range from marginally interesting to stupefyingly dull, although Ray does get credit for coming up with the process.In his essay, Perl opines that "Man Ray was a remarkably fortunate, happy man: he found himself at ease with the world through which he made his way." Maybe this was the problem - great art may require some degree of suffering on the part of the artist; maybe not as much as Van Gogh endured, but enough to inspire something beyond mere cleverness or decoration. Regardless, this Aperture volume is a good introduction to Ray's work for those unfamiliar with it.