Getty Museum
Fire Escape and Umbrellas
Creator
Man RayAmerican Photographer · 1890–1976
All works by this person →Born in Philadelphia, Emmanuel Radnitsky grew up in New Jersey and became a commercial artist in New York in the 1910s. He began to sign his name *Man Ray* in 1912, although his family did not change its surname to *Ray* until the 1920s. He initially taught himself photography in order to reproduce his own works of art, which included paintings and mixed media. In 1921 he moved to Paris and set up
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- 1917
- Medium
- Cliché verre
- Culture
- American
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
- Object ID
- 6511be2a-d02f-4e1d-bed8-4cb5c12fc6ff
This picture was made using the *cliché verre* (glass negative) process, which involves scratching a design into a layer of emulsion or pigment on glass, then using the plate as a negative to make photographic prints. Man Ray first worked with the technique in 1917 and returned to it on at least two later occasions, publishing the results in such journals as *Aventure* and *Der Sturm*. Artists of the French Barbizon school in the late 1800s used the technique as a method of printmaking. This image may look like a sketch, but it is actually a photographic print made with such a negative. In these pictures, Man Ray challenged the uniqueness of a drawing by making it reproducible while also playing with the definition of photography by sketching the subject on a negative rather than using a camera.
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