He said he was interested in lots of ideas. He was a painter for 35 years, but also did and loved photography. He said it was like having two lives. He also made sculptures too.
He used black and white film for his photos, and he was one of the first people to do photography. He was also one of the first people to do photograms aswell. He wanted to call them Rayograms but it did not take off.
His first major work was a patch work - neither painting or photography. He was influenced by Picasso and Cubism.
He met Marcel Duchamp, and he challenged 'what is art?'
He often included chess pieces within his self portraits, as he has an interest in chess, and he liked to play it with Duchamp.
Man Ray got into photography when he realised he didn't like the photographs other people took for him, so he bought a camera.
He took photos for Duchamp - pictures of his work and him. His titles were funny and ironic, and well considered.
He worked for magzines, taking photographs for them. He worked between America and France - Paris.
When he first exhibited his work, people weren't interested. However everyone was amazed by his photograms, which was just him placing objects onto photographic paper and exposing it to light. He became a master of this. He controlled the contrast and tones within the picture.
His work was shown in loads of magazines.
He gave up painting, and just concentrated on doing his photographs and photograms.
He was asked to make a film. He did this with the actual film. He printed onto it, and sprinkled salt and pepper. He made this into a three minute film.
At first, he worked in a hotel room - using basic equipment. Everyone used him as a photographer, including artists, friends, and family. He went onto rent a studio, and bought darkroom equipment.
Vogue bought his portraits. They then commissioned him to photograph celebrities. The pictures has a round edge to them. He then upgraded to a hotel with three rooms and got an assistant to help him and speed up the process.
He was the photographer for rich people in France and America. This included interior shots, and shots of landscapes.
People liked how
he portrayed them. 'Eye of a great hunter' people said about him.
For his shots, he would set the lighting before clients came, he asked them not to smile in the photographs, and he would also ask them to close their eyes in the shots. Also he would sometimes get them to hold an object to distract them. The background was usually plain, white or what looked like a chess board (because he liked chess).
He liked playing with shadows. He set up his camera three metres from the subject, he never took more than 12 shots per person. He cropped his images carefully, often cropping them tightly to just head and shoulder shots.
He sometimes added pencil marks to improve shots. He understood what makes a good photo is the use of contrast, and the play of light (light and dark).
He liked symmetry within his images. His fashion images show this.
He also solarised his images. He said he did this by accident. He did this by exposing his images during their development - exaggerating the contrast between dark and light. This made the picture look mysterious, it is a risky technique.
He said he put as much effort into his commercial work as he did to his art/personal photos.
There are strong lines within his photographs. His use of lighting is sophisticated. He included art works (others and his own) in his portraits/fashion images which flatter the gowns.
Man Ray was never short of money. His home was full of his own paintings. Many of his drawings and paintings are based on his photos.
He went against the trend photographing realism, he was experimental and created abstract images, in the dark room and when shooting photographs.
When he was taking photos, everyone else was photographing pretty things and making pretty pictures - of landscapes etc. He was really pushing his limits of photography.
He dared to photograph what he would not paint, which were nude photographs.
Man Ray died at the age of 86.
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