blog 3 Man Ray

Man Ray was born in 1890 in a town not too far from us here, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Ray is known for his surreal photography. Surreal photography is photography that represents the impossible. Man receives credit for being one of the first people to experiment with exposing photo paper to light. In present time we now call this photograms or from himself, rayographs. Photograms are when you take objects and place them on the paper and expose them to light. This creates shadows on the paper. Once the perfect exposure time is complete it leaves black and white shadows on the paper creating a photogram.

 One photo that stood out to me was this photo here. This photo represents a woman with water drops on her face. This photo is called "Glass Tears". Not knowing anything about the photo before, we can assume this photo has something to do with sadness. The womans eyes are so sharp and so dark is continues that sense of deep sadness or depression. The eyelashes on this woman are also very distinct and pronoun. After researching this photo I come to find that this photo happens to be about a breakup between Ray and his girl friend. 

This is a photogram or rayograph done by Ray himself. My eye drew to this one because one can guess what it is, but also it can leave one wondering. It to me looks like a dandelion, but it also looks like it could be an abstract piece. I say abstract because the ends of the dandelion almost look like insects, they do not look like the ends of the actual weed. I find this photogram really interesting simply because I would find it hard to perfectly place a dandelion on the paper to create a beautiful exposure of this weed. After attempting photograms myself, I find Man's work very impressive and skillful. 

-Bronwen Lewis