Emanuel Radniski (Emmanuel radnitzky) was born in Philadelphia, USA in 1890. When he moved to Brooklyn 1911, his father adopted the surname "Ray" and Emmanuel took the derogatory "Man"………
He studied painting and met Marcel Duchamp 1915, who brought him to the small circle of the Dandaists of New York. The 1920, frustrated by the failure of his third exhibition at the Daniel Gallery in New York, Man Ray settled in Paris and took part in the activities of the Dadaist group "giving up all hope of getting somewhere with painting".
Dressmaker Paul Poirier encouraged him to work as a fashion photographer, as well as Vogue magazines, Femina and Vanity Fair devoted more and more space to photography. Although he had no experience, with a little practice, Man Ray quickly mastered the technique, lending an "artistic prestige" to his images that made them so original.
Assignments soon multiplied and 1933 became a photographer for the American magazine Harper’s Bazaar. Unconventional compositions with movement, shadow and light toys, solarization and coloring were just some of the innovations that revealed his complete talent. The use of these techniques underscores the relationship between his work as a photographer and the seismic change in the fashion image of the decade. 1930. The female silhouette changed and fashion became a mass phenomenon, a change that fit Man Ray's images perfectly.
At the Museum of Luxembourg ( Luxembourg Museum) in Paris a large solo exhibition of the famous photographer is dedicated to Man Ray. Entitled "Man Ray and Fashion" (Man Ray and Fashion) sheds new light on the artist's works by revealing an aspect of his work: modern fashion photography.