Response to Man Ray Film

From the start of the film I began to understand and relate to Man Ray's comments on living a double life as both a painter and a photographer. I think it's interesting that he had to distinguish that in his time since artists today seem to do that less, people don't just get stuck in one media, they work in various ways and learn to work an interdisciplinary manner. This duality (double life) that Ray dealt with is even more relatable in the life of a student of the arts. As students we tend to live a double life, often having friends and other interests outside of art that we often don't mix with our artistic life; for me that is the case.

What I found the most interesting was Ray's attempt at making a film using the methods that he pioneered with Rayographs. Return of Reason was applauded and was interesting because he challenged the status quo of film making of the time. His Rayographs (photograms) were interesting to me in that they were a direct response to what Duchamp was working on with his ready-made. Making photograms of existing items and changing their meaning and making new meaning with the relationship between the objects. 

- Andres Ramirez