Man Ray — artist (surrealism) with roots in the Russian Empire
Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitsky) was an American visual artist who became a central figure of both Dadaism and Surrealism, known for his pioneering photography — the Rayograph, solarisation — and his iconic images of the Parisian avant-garde. He photographed Marcel Duchamp, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and virtually every major cultural figure of the 1920s-30s.
Tracing the roots — Kyiv / Minsk
Born in Philadelphia in 1890 to Melach Radnitsky and Manya Luria, both Jewish immigrants from Kyiv and Minsk (Russian Empire), Man Ray grew up in Brooklyn's immigrant Jewish world. He changed his name deliberately to obliterate his immigrant identity — and then spent his life documenting the world's most radical artists with the eye of someone who had learned very early that identity is something you invent.
.svg?width=900)
Kyiv / Minsk. At the time, this region lay within the Russian Empire, which spanned from Poland to the Pacific.
A career defined by ambition
"I photograph what I do not wish to paint and I paint what I cannot photograph."