Focus on Photographs:
Man Ray’s Électricité

Between February 18th and June 25th, 2006 the Amon Carter Museum in Forth Worth Texas will present ten revolutionary images created by the innovative American photographer Man Ray (1890–1976), who made camera-less photographs, or photograms, by placing objects like toasters, light bulbs and irons on a piece of photographic paper or film and then exposing the film or paper to light.

Although made without a camera, a photogram is still considered a photograph in its purest form. To make a photogram, objects (and even people) are placed on top of light sensitive photographic paper or film that is then exposed to light and finally developed the same way as camera-made photographs are. The areas of the paper where objects were placed remains light; where there were no objects, the paper darkens. Some of the world’s first photograms, made as early as 1840, used such objects as ferns, flowers, and even pieces of lace.

The innovative American photographer Man Ray (born Emmanuel Rudnitsky, 1890–1976) explored the aesthetic possibilities of the photogram in the 1920s and 1930s, transforming everyday objects into mysterious shaded silhouettes. In addition, he enhanced many of his nudes and standard female portraits with the technique giving many of these images an eerie ghost-like effect.

He called his camera-less images, in what many consider a bold and rather ego driven move, Rayographs. In 1931 the French electric company, la Compagnie Parisienne de Distribution d’Électricité, commissioned Man Ray, who was living in Paris, to create a series of images promoting a modern home outfitted with multiple convenient appliances.

This innovative idea was part of the company’s desperate campaign to counter lackluster electric consumption. The photographer delivered ten stunning photograms in a portfolio entitled Électricité. The images combined the commercial with the avant-garde and offered an unexpected, witty vision of an electrified home and world. The semi-abstract and surreal works represented the futurist styles of the 1920s and 1930s and heralded the modern conveniences provided by electric power.

Each image displayed at the museum was mechanically reproduced as a handcrafted photogravure, a kind of photographic etching. The Carter’s Électricité portfolio is number 101 of the edition of 500 that were originally produced as premiums for the electric company’s select shareholders and preferred customers.

For more information on the Amon Carter Museum please visit http://www.cartermuseum.org