Man Ray

American photographer (Philadelphia, 1890 - Paris, 1976), who spent most of his life in Paris. He was involved in the Dada and Surrealist movements, significantly influencing them with his avant-garde photographs from the 1920s and 1930s. Alongside Jean Arp, Max Ernst, Andre Masson, Joan Miro, and Pablo Picasso, he participated in the first Surrealist exhibition at Galerie Pierre in 1925. During the same period, with his photography of ready-made objects, such as the metronome with a single eye ("Indestructible Object"), he directed a series of short "pure cinema" films: "Le Retour a la Raison" (2 minutes, 1923), "Emak-Bakia" (16 minutes, 1926), "L'Etoile de Mer" (15 minutes, 1928), "Les Mysteres du Chateau de De" (27 minutes, 1929). He also assisted as a cinematographer for Marcel Duchamp's film "Anemic Cinema" (1926) and operated the camera himself for Fernand Leger's film "Ballet Mécanique" (1924). Between 1940-1951, he lived in Los Angeles due to the war and German occupation, where he married dancer and model Juliet Browner. However, he returned to Paris and his beloved Montparnasse, where he passed away on November 18, 1976, at the age of 86.