Man Ray – 100 Photos for Press Freedom

78th album of the RSF collection, 100 photos for freedom of the press

Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitsky), the American exiled in the effervescence of the Parisian twenties, has redefined the contours of photographic art. An artisan of genius, a visionary without limits, he made the lens a brush and light a material. His works, between technical audacity and flamboyant surrealism, transcend the eras. Complicit with the avant-gardes, friend of Aragon, Éluard, Dalí and Duchamp, inspired by his muses Kiki de Montparnasse and Lee Miller, Man Ray has left us timeless icons.

The 100-page portfolio is illuminated by unpublished contributions: the story of the queen of Montparnasse, Kiki, by José-Louis Bocquet, author and screenwriter; a portrait of Man Ray, fierce and free, by the exhibition curator Emmanuelle de l’Ecotais; the story of an important compatriot, the publisher Robert McAlmon, by writer and editor Maud Simonnot. An excerpt from the photographer’s autobiography (Self-Portrait) is reproduced in foreword, as well as a text by Whitney Scharer on the passionate relationship between Man Ray and Lee Miller.