Man Ray's Contributions to Photography

     Emmanuel Radnitzky was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Russian-Jewish immigrants on August 27th, 1890. He grew up in a fairly large family consisting of his mother and father, him as the eldest child, a brother, and two sisters. It is a shame that his family felt they had to hide their ethnic and religious background due to the discrimination of the times. In 1912, they decided to change their surname to Ray for these reasons. Emmanuel changed his first name as well, leading to the name we associate with his work today (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Ray) .

    Ray grew up working in his parents' home-run tailor shop. He was ashamed of this as well, which I find both very interesting and sad. Back in the early to mid 1900s, it was more of a burden than a blessing to have the public knowing of your humble background than it was if you grew up in a wealthy home with more respected parents. Today, Ray could proudly shout out his humble beginnings in the small tailor shop his father had him help in and talk about his Russian roots and Jewish background with a smaller worry of discrimination while living in the US and in France. 

    Despite his want to hide his tailoring background and his shame behind it, it was prevalent in his work all throughout his career. Tailor-related objects, mannequins, sewing kits/needles and multiple fabrics find a place in many works throughout his career (https://www.manray.net).

    The photograph below is titled Pavilion of Elegance. It looks as if he posed a mannequin in elegant clothing. To me this makes a statement on how stiff men and women of high society are trained to be both emotionally and physically. Feelings were a sign of weakness in high society families, so being stiff and emotionless was preferred to seem like the example of a perfect family and perfect life. I feel it also proves my point of Ray using his tailoring past in his works throughout his career, as it uses an elegant dress and a mannequin as the subject of the photo.