Emanuel Radnitzky was born august 27th 1890 in Philadelphia united states he was the son of russian-jewish immigrants. He changed his name to Man ray due to the discrimination and antisemitism he faced. in his teens He went to art Museums often and attended brooklyn boys high school for six years giving him a start to his art career. Man was inspired by fancy European contemporary art. later he moved to Paris were he would spend most of his life and started to dabble in "Dada" a radical anti-art movement
Style
Man had a very scandalous style for his time, pushing boundries. many of his work were suggestive using women dressed in promiscuous clothing for the early 1900s and hightlighted parts of ones body. there is a surreal element in his work, using out of the ordinary props and playing with lighting. He had a very abstract original futuristic style
Philosophy
Man wanted to break boundries, participating in the dadaism movement. Dadaism was a reaction to the 1st world war. The point of Dada was to take the logic and aesthetic out of art and crank up nonsense and chaos as a anti-capitalist protest. it is considered an "anti art movement" representing "the opposite of what art stood for" according to Hans Richter a Dada painter. you can see Hints of Dada in mans work
Influences
Ever since Man was young he has been influenced by surreal extravagant European art. Francis Picabia who was a french painter. Robert henri was an american painter who had French influences similar to Man. Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a early to mid 1800s painter. Man was inspired by the Parisian lifestyle.
Solorised teen
It was difficult to take this photo because i did not have a second person to model or take the photo with me modeling. Since there are two hands in the photo and i cant take the photo without my hands. so i settled with just using one hand. i used a multicolored lamp as my source of light and placed it high on a bookshelf to make the light come from above like Mans work.
Solarised woman by Man Ray (1932)
lace and light
This is Mans most famous photo so i wanted to use it. Noire et Blanche is French and means black and white in English. My father owns a mask similar to Mans he got as a gift from one of his friends and i borrowed it for this. lit the photo like mans having the light come from the bottom corner. The only difference is mine is left and Mans is right
Noire et Blanche by Man Ray (1926)
Chapstick tears
Glass tears is my favorite of his photos. I really wanted to have artificial tears in my photo like his. I dont have any materials like the glass tears so i tried to roll petroleum jelly into little droplettes and apply them under my eyes. sadly it did not turn out like i wanted but at least they look artificial as i was planning.
Glass tears by Man Ray (1932)
Artist statement Man has a large influence on my style with his surrealist dark aesthetic. it was really fun taking these photos it took me about an hour to pick the ones i found fit best. I chose my favorite of his works. i decided to modernize his photos with my recreation rather than mimic them. i did not edit them to be in black and white and i used more modern items to setup the photos.