Man Ray

The works the movements that inspired Ray the most were the ones that challenged peoples understanding. So it comes to no surprise that he would latch onto the surrealism movement. I'll be honest I've never been too into surrealism, most of it feels just feels too pretentious for me. However, the artists that go into these movements tend to have a high amount of skill and even if I don't care for the content I can recognize the craftsmanship. Man Ray is no exception to this statement.

Man Ray's photographs contain excellent use of space and interesting compositions. Even when there is only one thing in focus it's positioned in a way that leads your eye around. He manipulates the photographs in visually interesting ways even if their meaning can be hard to parse. There's a definite feeling that he cares about the end result of his photography. So that clear feeling of care makes the usual feelings of surrealist art a lot more palatable for me.

However, I still wouldn't say I particularly enjoy Man Ray's art as a whole. Overall I feel neutral towards his work. He has his fair share of photographs that feel are interesting but they're equally matched by the ones I dislike. This neutrality is likely coming from the fact that pictures like this aren't exactly new to me, at the time of the movement they were pushing new ground and there were certain charms and qualities that came with that. People can enjoy these photographs without placing themselves in the time they were created, but I feel like those who are able to think back to then have a much greater appreciation.