Man Ray's Photogram... "Rayographs"

    Born in Philadelphia, Man Ray happened to be an American artist during the Dada and Surrealist movements. He is known for his photography, his paintings, collages, and his black and white photographs, a multimedia artist some would say. Ray uses the human body to create surreal and abstract artwork. Ray was influenced by the 1913 Armory Show and galleries of European contemporary works, as well as the work of Duchamp and the Cubists. Because of this, Ray became interested in showing movement in his static paintings and his photograms. At some point in his life, Man Ray explored the technique of solarization, which is a photographic process that records images on the negative. with this special technique in mind, he then created his big artwork and it was known as "Rayographs."

                                                          

    The photogram above speaks out to me, as if it is telling a story. Its as if there is a deep and meaningful, but playful conversation going on. This could have been made out of cutouts and shading of some sort, but this is very satisfying. This is inspiring because we are currently doing photograms in class and I needed something to give me a push and this has done it for me. In general, I was thinking that narrative had to be something pertaining to us personally, but seeing this gives me an insight on how a narrative can be anything I would want it to be.