Hattie Carnegie wearing a Vionnet Dress, 1933

About Man Ray

In the middle of the 1920s, the role of photography was much debated in the United States. It was questioned whether photography can be something more than just a technical aid in producing a more precise replication of reality. Photography hitherto enjoyed a primarily scientific, but not at all artistic, reception. At precisely this point, Man Ray, who moved to Paris in 1921, began to use photography in a radically surrealist way. For Man Ray, the medium of photography had always been more than a mere technical reproduction material, even though he had first been introduced to it as such. In it, he discovered a multilayered, artistic means of expression. It is important to add that he was… Read more