Artist. Although he worked in all the plastic arts, he revealed his true genius as a photographer; in this field he is acknowledged as one of the supreme masters of the 20th Century. He created daring and original stills by experimenting with such techniques as solarization, negative imagery, multiple exposures, lens manipulation, and his signature innovation, the "Rayograph," or "photography without a camera." With this process he produced abstract images by placing objects onto raw negative film and then exposing them to light. He also made the avant-garde films "The Return to Reason" (1923), "Emak Bakia" (1927), "The Starfish" (1928), and "The Mystery of the Chateau of Dice" (1929), and a list of those who sat for a Ray portrait reads like a who's who of French art and literature of his time. Ray was born Emmanuel Radnitsky in Philadelphia, and moved with his family to Brooklyn when he was seven. He studied painting and first took up photography in 1914 to keep a convenient record of his canvases. Later he would say, "I paint what I can't photograph, and photograph what I can't paint". Ray was a founder of the New York Dada movement and fell in with the Surrealists after moving to Paris in 1921. During the 1920's he was romantically involved with the model Kiki du Montparnasse, whom he immortalized in many famous photographs, notably "Ingres' Violin" (1924), in which Kiki's curvaceous nude back was manipulated to resemble a musical instrument. He was subsequently lover and mentor to photographer Lee Miller. In 1940 Ray fled the Nazi invasion and spent the next decade in California; after returning to Paris in 1951 he largely abandoned photography for painting. "Self Portrait" (1963) is his autobiography.
Artist. Although he worked in all the plastic arts, he revealed his true genius as a photographer; in this field he is acknowledged as one of the supreme masters of the 20th Century. He created daring and original stills by experimenting with such techniques as solarization, negative imagery, multiple exposures, lens manipulation, and his signature innovation, the "Rayograph," or "photography without a camera." With this process he produced abstract images by placing objects onto raw negative film and then exposing them to light. He also made the avant-garde films "The Return to Reason" (1923), "Emak Bakia" (1927), "The Starfish" (1928), and "The Mystery of the Chateau of Dice" (1929), and a list of those who sat for a Ray portrait reads like a who's who of French art and literature of his time. Ray was born Emmanuel Radnitsky in Philadelphia, and moved with his family to Brooklyn when he was seven. He studied painting and first took up photography in 1914 to keep a convenient record of his canvases. Later he would say, "I paint what I can't photograph, and photograph what I can't paint". Ray was a founder of the New York Dada movement and fell in with the Surrealists after moving to Paris in 1921. During the 1920's he was romantically involved with the model Kiki du Montparnasse, whom he immortalized in many famous photographs, notably "Ingres' Violin" (1924), in which Kiki's curvaceous nude back was manipulated to resemble a musical instrument. He was subsequently lover and mentor to photographer Lee Miller. In 1940 Ray fled the Nazi invasion and spent the next decade in California; after returning to Paris in 1951 he largely abandoned photography for painting. "Self Portrait" (1963) is his autobiography.
Bio by: Bobb Edwards
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