Man Ray

 

Man Ray, Rayograph (The Kiss), 1922

    Man Ray was a man known for many things, but one that tops them all is his work done with the photograms, what he called rayographs. The Kiss was one of Ray's earliest photograms. It shows two figures grabbing each other's faces and passionately kissing one another. He did this by placing his and his lover's hand on photosensitive paper and shining a lot upon it repeatedly. They then did the same thing, but with their heads, thus making the figures in the photogram look as if two lovers are embracing each other with a kiss (wikiart.org) 

    What I find fascinating about The Kiss is that you can see Ray's thought process when visually putting together the photogram and just how raw the process is. The heads were given less light than the hands due to their visual transparency, but the hand on the right was not given enough light to create a white silhouette. Then to balance out the white hand, he purposely made the heads darker. One could come up with a story with this alone, perhaps Ray was trying to convey that a lover's touch has the ability to light up the world. The outline of Ray's bushy eyebrow and wavy hair is visible within the photogram as well. As a major artist in the Dadaist movement, Man Ray looked to capture the ordinary of everyday life in ways that made them extraordinary (iphf.org)

    

Man Ray, Untitled Rayograph, 1922

    In this photograph, we what appears to be a silver slinky on top of a glass cup, with smoke and a box. Though these are regular household items, Ray creates an out-of-this-world piece all by manipulating light. The glass cup in the background appears blurred, while the focal point is on the slinky. The piece makes it look as if the smoke is coming out of the nonexistent mouth of the slinky, making the scene appear alien-like. Unlike The Kiss, this untitled Rayograph is more abstract, rather than appearing to tell a narrative to the viewer. Ray's use of different materials when creating a photogram captures a scene one could not do using regular photography.

Sources:

https://www.wikiart.org/en/man-ray/rayograph-the-kiss-1922

https://iphf.org/inductees/man-ray-emmanuel-radnitsky/

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/46405

https://www.moma.org/artists/3716