Man Ray is a very well know artist/photographer. Ray first started his career as a painter but soon developed a love for photography and different methods of photo collage. Ray invented the Rayograph which is a process we still use today in the dark room. Ray’s aim was to create ‘camera less photographs’ a rayograph is done by exposing light sensitive paper to light with various objects on top, to create a ‘photograph’ of the objects on the light sensitive paper. Ray’s work is all about manipulating his subjects, he uses multiple techniques to do this.

In Ray’s images he often uses props to change his subjects and make them more interesting, he takes what could be just a standard portrait and gives it the edge by bringing in a factor that binds the subject to the camera and gives us as an audience a more interesting outcome to look at. Ray always shot in black and white, this gives his photographs the edge because, the harsh and dramatic lighting adds a lot of depth and tone to the images and helps draw the audiences eye towards them. Ray uses a lot of different methods in his photography one of my favourite photographic techniques he uses is to adjust the shutter speed of his camera.

By adjusting the shutter speed of his camera and getting the subject to move it creates a beautiful effect that the subject in the photography is moving even though they are not. I have really been inspired by the work of Man Ray. I believe his style of work fits in really well with my current project of Identity. I am going to try out some of Ray’s techniques in my image making process, these being different shutter speeds, the use of props and different lighting fixtures. I plan to use film as well as digital to see the difference in results. Man Ray is one of my favourite photographs and collage artists so I take a lot of inspiration from his work especially for my unit.

Museum Ludwig, ML, Man Ray, Foto von Charles E. Fraser