Man Ray’s Slow Fade From the Limelight

Jeremy Lybarger | The New Republic | 7th October 2021

A new biography of Man Ray does little to bolster his fading reputation. Philadelphia born, he moved to Paris in 1921, drawn by its creative buzz. Aspirations to be a painter came to nothing but in photography his exploration of “technical epiphanies” made his name. These images never gelled into a signature style, suggestive of the “pinched radius of Ray’s genius”. Ray’s stylistic fingerprints can still be seen in fashion photography but elsewhere his cultural impact is “unnoticed”.