Untitled (plate 4) from the album Champs Délicieux
Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky)
American, 1890–1976
1922
An experimental camera-less photograph — a rayograph printed as a gelatin silver print — in which Man Ray arranged shapes and light to produce swirling abstract forms that read like a choreography of shadow and shape.
You are immediately pulled into overlapping crescent arcs that spiral inward, their soft tonal gradients and sharp edges suggesting motion and a luminous, sculptural depth.
Made in 1922, this work helped reconceive photography as a medium for pure abstraction and surreal play, advancing camera-less photograms and influencing modernist experiments with light, form, and composition.
Medium
Gelatin silver print after rayograph
Dimensions
8 15/16 × 6 3/4" (22.7 × 17.1 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Fund
Accession
253.1935.4
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
