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Man Ray, 1890-1976

Main details

Main details for this item.
Reference number
1996/5106
Name
Emmanuel Rudnitzky
Preferred name
Man Ray
Born
1890
Collection
Object type
  • Person
Completeness
36%
  • Biography

    AttributeValue
    Biography
    Born Emmanuel Rudnitzky in Philadelphia, Man Ray studied at the New York National Academy of Design (1908) and at the Ferrer School (1911-13), where he became friends with the photographer Alfred Steiglitz.

    In 1915, the year of his first exhibition, Man Ray met Marcel Duchamp and began experimenting with photography. He went to live in France in 1921 and the following year created his first photograms (which he called `rayographs'), which were images made without a camera by exposing objects directly on light-sensitive paper.

    His first album of rayographs, Les Champs Delicieux, was introduced by his fellow-Dadaist Tristan Tzara. Deeply involved in Surrealism, he was a fashion photographer (particularly for Paul Poiret), a portraitist and an experimental film-maker.

    He spent the years 1940 to 1951 in Hollywood, painting and teaching photography at the Art Centre School. In 1972 the Musee National d'Art Moderne in Paris held a retrospective exhibition of his work.
    Education
    New York National Academy of Design, 1908
    Ferrer School, New York, 1911-1913
    Employment
    Designed posters for London Transport, 1938
    Role
    Artist,