Man Ray

Man Ray

Philadelphia 1890 - Parijs 1976

The American artist Emmanuel Radnitzky, who would call himself Man Ray, began his career as engraver and advertising designer. In New York he got to know the work of the Dadaist Marcel Duchamp, and in 1918 he founded the New York Dada movement with Francis Picabia. Before and after the Second World War, Ray lived in Paris, where he worked mainly as photographer. He developed 'rayography', a photographic procedure named after him in which objects were laid directly on light-sensitive paper in order to produce an image. In 1924 May Ray was involved in the founding of the surrealist movement and in 1925 he participated in the first exhibition of surrealism.