Emmanuel Radnitzky known as Man Ray. He was born on August 27th 1890 in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Man Ray and his family were recent Russian Jewish immigrant. The Radnitzky family changed they're surname to Ray in 1912 to because all of the ethnic discrimination. Man Ray was known to be a modernist, he was a contribute to both Dada and Surrealist movements. Man Ray was known mostly for fashion and portrait  photographer. He was noticed for his work on photograms, and he called them "Rayographs" to refer to himself. 


Man Ray started off as an painter. He went to a Boy's High school from 1904-1908 that educated him on the basics of art. Man Ray would frequently visit local art museums. He was offered a scholarship in architecture but he decided to pursue his career as an artist. He worked for the next 4 years on becoming a professional artist. To earn money he worked as a commercial artist for a few Manhattan companies. 


Man Ray's produced his first significant photo in 1918. At this time he was living in New York. Eventually he abandoned painting all together and just took up photography. He joined the Dada movement, an anti-art movement. He started making objects, a unique mechanical way of making his images. His father was a garment worker in a factor, he and his wife also had a small tailoring business from the house. Man Ray and his siblings were forced to help out at a young age with the tailoring business. His mother enjoyed making clothes for the family and creating her own designs.  The tailoring business influenced Man Ray on his art work. Tailoring dummies, patches of fabric, sewing needles, sewing machines, flat irons, and other tailoring tools endured Man Ray's choice in his photographs. To the right is one of his early photographs that he had the idea from his family home. He didn't just use a plain flat iron in the photo, he changed the image of the iron to make it more eye opening. 


In 1921 Man Ray moved to Paris to live and work on his photography. In Paris  more of his work was based on portraits. Unfortunately, he was forced to move back to the United States due to the World War II. He lived in Los Angeles, California from 1940-1951. After falling in love with a women from California, they got married and moved back to Paris. Man Ray died on November 18th 1976 of a lung infection. Most of Man Ray's art work and photographs were donated to museums. Man Ray was a unique and creative photographer and artist and should be known for his amazing work. 


Here are some of his other paintings and photographs. 

Ingres Violin, 1924 by Man Ray                             Glass Tears, 1930-1933 by Man Ray