The Etchers (Meret Oppenheim and Louis Marcoussis)
Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky)
American, 1890–1976
1933
A 1933 gelatin silver print by Man Ray titled The Etchers that stages two artists at work, using portrait photography to reveal their creative collaboration through carefully controlled light and composition.
The first thing that strikes you is the theatrical chiaroscuro and tight cropping—the woman's smooth, profile-lit face set against the bearded man's shadowed, intense gaze, their hands meeting on a wheel to make the scene feel intimate and slightly mysterious.
This photograph exemplifies Man Ray's Surrealist-era portraits, where cinematic lighting and compositional staging transformed fellow artists into psychologically charged figures and helped redefine photography as a medium for expressive, staged art.
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
11 3/4 × 9 1/16" (29.8 × 23 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of James Thrall Soby
Accession
191.1941
Palette
Exhibitions
