Man Ray - biography

“All critics should be assassinated.”

“Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask ‘how’, while others of a more curious nature will ask ‘why’.  Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.”

“An original is a creation motivated by desire.  Any reproduction of an originals motivated be necessity.  It is marvelous that we are the only species that creates gratuitous forms.  To create is divine, to reproduce is human.”

“I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive.”

“It has never been my object to record my dreams, just the determination to realize them.”

“One of the satisfactions of a genius is his will-power and obstinacy.”

“To me, a painter, if not the most useful, is the least harmful member of our society.”

“A creator needs only one enthusiast to justify him.”

“Don’t put my name on it.  These are simply documents I make.”

“I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence.”

Man Ray directed the following films:
Le Retour à la raison (1923)
À quoi rêvent les jeunes films (1924)
Ballet Mécanique (1924)
Jeux des Reflets et de la Vitesse (1925)
Emak-Bakia (1926)
Anemic Cinema (1927)
L’Étoile de mer (1928)
Les Mystères du château de Dé (1929)
Poison (1935)
Essai de simulation de délire cinématographique (1935)
Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947)

Man Ray was photography director on the following films:
Emak-Bakia (1926)


Man Ray has appeared in the following films:
Entr’acte (1924)


Man Ray contributed to the screenplay for the following films:
Le Retour à la raison (1923)
Emak-Bakia (1926)
L’Étoile de mer (1928)
Les Mystères du château de Dé (1929)
Poison (1935)