Untitled

Although he supported himself as a portrait photographer, Man Ray was part of the Parisan Surrealist circle and embraced their experimental approach to art. He pushed the medium of photography into new territory through innovative darkroom techniques. He made cameraless photograms that he called “Rayographs,” he solarized his prints to reverse their most extreme tones, and exploited a variety of other novel techniques. In this photograph, the artist experimented with a double exposure during the printing process by layering two negatives on top of each other. The result is a mind-bending and symbolically layered composition.