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Born Emmanuel Radnitzky in 1890 in Philadelphia, the American
painter, writer, and photographer Man Ray moved to Paris in 1921
and from his studio at 31 rue Campagne Première in the heart of
Montparnasse created some of
the most memorable photographs of the twentieth century. Photographs beautiful and moving but mysterious and surreal as
well, images that remain with one. Les Larmes (and the name, Glass
Tears, as it is sometimes called in English, even more lovely
-- with its connotations of
transparency, or alternately, pretense) in which five large drops of
water or glass, diamond-like baubles of light, dot a close-up of a
woman's
face like huge tears, long eyelashes and huge expressive eyes
looking upwards….
Les Larmes
(Glass Tears), 1930-33, Man Ray
Noire et blanche is equally famous, equally
iconic. The photograph first appeared in 1926 in the May edition
of French Vogue and was titled Visage de nacre et masque d'ébène
before appearing several months later in the Belgian Surrealist
magazine Variétés under the title Noire et blanche.
Interesting
as well that Man Ray did not title his work Noir et blanc, French
for Black and White, but chose the feminine forms of both words;
emphasizing that his composition is not about color, but about two
feminine faces. It appeared also in Art et decoration that same
year, where Pierre Migennes noted most poetically:
"The same sleep and the same dream, the same mysterious magic
seem to unite across time and space these two female masks with
closed eyes: one of which was created at some point in time by an
African sculptor in black ebony, the other, no less perfect, made
up yesterday in Paris."
The photo is Surrealistic in that it
juxtaposes images to suggest a meaning, hidden or apparent, or as
Emmanuelle de l'Ecotais said of the photograph - it gives
expression to one of Man Ray's fundamental aims: provoquer la
refléxion! Man Ray had been influenced by West African art, like
Picasso and Brancusi before him finding inspiration in African
sculpture, particularly the mask. Picasso had his own African
period (from 1907-1909), one thinks of the stylized and distorted
figures of his famous Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, of Brancusi's
beautiful oval heads….
A
reverse print of Noire et blanche exists as well, inverting both the
position of the masks and the color scheme, a playful variation on
the part of Man Ray, a photographer both mysterious and
inventive….images to keep with one this Halloween weekend!
Tags:
paris
surrealism
photography
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