Man Ray Video Response

Man Ray was a multi-media artist who ended up specializing in photography. This documentary discussed his life leading up to his success in celebrity and fashion photography, his rayograph invention, and his solarization experiment. The fact that he lived in Paris and the US for equal amounts of time leads me to believe that he had a very well-rounded view of artwork and the art world in general. American artists and European artists were going through many changes and creating different genres of art during his time. When the documentary started to talk about how he began being hired to photograph fashion and celebrities, I understood how he could afford to live his avant-garde lifestyle. Though photographing celebrities seems to be more of a commercial approach versus an artistic one, I believe his ability to use recognizable faces while experimenting with photographic styles led to other photographers being able to view his work as inspiration. Along with his somewhat stylistic photography, his rayographs were also seen as inspirational at the time. The ability to create a photograph without having to use a camera was an idea that had not previously been discussed or seen. What interests me most about rayographs is the ability to use everyday objects for their shadows and to produce an image from them that can be almost impossible to decipher. After seeing some of the rayographs shown in this documentary, I am now thinking about the objects I want to use and how I want to stack them in my own rayographs. There was a part towards the end of the documentary where a statement was made that Man Ray would give the cold shoulder towards people who entered his studio and did not notice or make mention of his paintings. This was kind of funny to me, because it made him sound like a bit of a diva. Though, I can understand the thought that he took pride in his paintings and wanted other people to recognize his talent. The most interesting part of this documentary was the section about solarization. The thought of a photograph turning out to look like a drawing is fascinating. The process he ‘accidentally’ stumbled upon is also pretty genius. It makes me wonder if he was just experimenting with different photo processes and found this one that worked. The images that were shown in regards to this process were much more interesting than the previous photos shown. The contrast between the highlights and shadows created a dramatic image that commanded my attention. The dark black outline around the images also added to the ‘hand-drawn’ feel and made the subject seem to pop off of the paper (or out of the screen, in this case). Overall, this documentary was interesting and informative. Aside from it being an older documentary, the one thing I did not like was the strange lyrical stuff going on behind the instruments in the middle of the documentary. I feel like it distracted from the subject a bit.