Fashion Through Man Ray's Lens

History primarily portrays the artist known as Man Ray as a roaring twenties artistic revolutionary. However, he had an earlier, lesser-known career. Not many know that the artist, whose name is synonymous with Dada and Surrealism, was also one of the first fashion photographers who left an important mark on the industry. Appearing in the pages of Vogue before being sold at auction years later as works of art, his brilliant fashion photographs pierced through the realm of advertising in a way few had done. This lecture will investigate the enigmatic personality of a man who, despite finding success in the fashion industry, always felt an aversion to it. We will examine questions like, what was Man Ray hiding? And what was his complex involvement with the model/photographer Lee Miller (who herself had an eccentric personality)? We will look at how the revolutionary visual techniques we associate with Man Ray were, in fact, discovered by accident.