Art Book Review: Man Ray: Photography and Its Double

The irony of Man Ray's life was that while he is today almost universally regarded as one of the greatest twentieth century photographers, second only to Stieglitz in my own opinion, he himself wanted to be known as a painter.  Born Emmanuel Radnitzky, he came by his photography career almost by accident.  When he arrived in Paris in 1921, he found that it was his skill in photographing artwork (it had been to make a record his own art that he had first taken up the camera in New York) that was most in demand and gave him an entree into European art circles.  Unable to earn a living as a painter - he failed to sell a single work at his first show at Librairie Six - he instead became extremely successful on both sides of the Atlantic as a portraitist and fashion photographer.

It was through his photography and his experimental short films that Man Ray came to be associated with Dadaism and Surrealism, the two most important art movements in France between the World Wars.  He had already become friends with Marcel Duchamp while still living in America.  When Man Ray arrived in Paris he was met by Duchamp who thereupon introduced him to the leading avant garde artists residing in the city.  Afterwards, Man Ray lived more or less a double life that could only have been possible in the French capital.  On the one hand, he found great commercial success through his fashion and portrait work while on the other hand he was respected as one of the leading Surrealists.  The two different strands of his life came together in his photographic work.  His fashion photos very often contained artistic elements that raised them above the use for which they had been intended, and his art photography benefited from the commercial skills he had mastered.  This continued until the outbreak of World War II when Man Ray was forced to flee the Nazis and returned to America at which point his career as a photographer came to an abrupt end.

There are a number of art books on the market dealing with Man Ray's photography, but Man Ray: Photography and Its Double is the best I've come across.  It was compiled in 1998 to accompany an "external exhibit" organized by the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris during its renovation.  (I saw the exhibit at ICP here in New York City and was impressed by its inclusion not only of the photographer's final prints but of his contact sheets as well.)  The catalog consists of a number of essays by different scholars, including Serge Bramly, but at its heart are those by Emmanuelle de l'Ecotais who reviewed the Man Ray archives, including thousands of his negatives, that had been acquired by the Centre after a settlement with the estate of the photographer's widow Juliet in lieu of payment of estate taxes.  De l'Ecotais's access to the negatives and contact sheets provided her with a unique perspective that sometimes contradicted the artist's own account.  For example, Man Ray had always claimed that his portrait work was unretouched;  in actuality de l'Ecotais found evidence of substantial negative retouching done as a matter of routine in order to produce the desired effect.

In addition to providing an overview of Man Ray's fashion and portrait photography, the essays also provide welcome information on the more esoteric aspects of his photography, principally the Sabattier Effect and the Rayographs.  Though Man Ray was not the first to have discovered these processes, he used them carefully to bring a new level of artistry to his work and to express his vision in new ways.  In this regard, an essay by Michel Sanouillet traces artistic implications of the relationship between Man Ray and Duchamp.  Finally, there is an interview with Lucien Treillard, the photographer's friend and assistant for the last fifteen years of his life. 

One of the best features of the book is the variety of the images shown, all of them beautifully reproduced.  Over his lifetime, Man Ray had carefully selected for public display the photographs by which he wished to be remembered.  While that selection contained his best and most iconic works, it represented only a small fraction of his total oeuvre.  In contrast, this book, though it shows all the favorites, also has a large number of images with which I had previously been unfamiliar and which are well worth viewing.

This book is not by any means a biography.  Those wishing to learn more about the photographer and his work should read the 1988 study by Neil Baldwin entitled Man Ray: American Artist.  It's an excellent account of the career of one of the greatest artists this country has produced.