![[Dead leaf]](/api/proxy-image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.getty.edu%2Fiiif%2Fimage%2F7df22157-4739-43bd-9995-80f1e0ef6b00%2Ffull%2F808%2C%2F0%2Fdefault.jpg)
Getty Museum
[Dead leaf]
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
- 1942
- Medium
- Gelatin silver print
- Culture
- American
- Department
- Photographs
- Institution
- Getty Museum
- Object ID
- e8131094-44dc-4d0c-81d8-57cde4826e0d
Remarkable for its starkness, this photograph of a brittle castor bean leaf appeared with four others by Man Ray in the October 1943 issue of *Minicam Photography* . In his caption for the image, Man Ray wrote with uncharacteristic poignancy of the knowledge that "the dying leaf would be completely gone tomorrow." It is tempting to interpret the melancholy sentiment of the work in terms of the artist's growing discontent concerning his lack of recognition and financial success in Los Angeles and his fear that the work he left behind in France might be destroyed during the war.
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