Man Ray 1924 Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Exstasis Dazed & Confused; Shot by Matthew Stone
It's been a while since I've written anything with substance so I beg your pardon if I come across as dim. Though the surrealist movement is one that's hard for me to grasp, I've found its much easier to see photography's role in the movement. The day photographers began to view their medium as one that could be creative versus purely documentary an entirely new avenue opened. Man Ray is most definitely one of the largest names in avant-garde photography, and many of his works pushed the envelope artistically in various ways. He viewed photography as a form of creation rather than one that purely reproduced. He often used women as his subject matter, confronting the conservative viewer with the female body. Today the use of the nude still startles and causes discomfort in some viewers but it amazes me how truly artistic the use of the nude has become. Matthew Stone places the soft female body next to the harsh marble square but manages to remain delicate. Even the smoke can't make the image harsh.
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