Male Torso

Man Ray

1930 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

Man Ray experimented with photographic techniques throughout his artistic career. In this image, the delineation of a man’s muscular torso appears outlined by a bold black line, separating the precisely rendered details of his body from the flat background. Man Ray achieved this effect through a process called solarization, in which an image recorded on a negative or photographic print is wholly or partially reversed in tone. Thus, the photograph possesses the peculiar union of otherworldliness and realism characteristic of Surrealist photography.

Artist

Man Ray

Date

1930

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Ford Motor Company Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Waddell, 1987