Man Ray (Emanuel Radnitsky)
[Artist, b. 1890, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, d. 1976, Paris.]
I would photograph an idea rather than an object, a dream rather than an idea.
Is photography an art? There is no point in trying to find out if it is an art. Art is old-fashioned. We need something else.
I photograph what I do not wish to paint and I paint what I cannot photograph.
Speaking of nudes, I have always had a great fondness for this subject, both in my paintings and in my photos, and I must admit, not for purely artistic reasons.
Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask “how,” while others of a more curious nature will ask “why.” Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.
Cut out the eye from a photograph of one who has been loved but is seen no more.
Attach the eye to the pendulum of a metronome and regulate the weight to suit the tempo desired.
Keep going to the limit of endurance.
With a hammer well-aimed, try to destroy the whole at a single blow.
(1932, describing “Object To Be Destroyed,” made using a metronome and the photographed eye of artist, lover and collaborator Lee Miller who left him.)
Attach the eye to the pendulum of a metronome and regulate the weight to suit the tempo desired.
Keep going to the limit of endurance.
With a hammer well-aimed, try to destroy the whole at a single blow.
(1932, describing “Object To Be Destroyed,” made using a metronome and the photographed eye of artist, lover and collaborator Lee Miller who left him.)
If I’d had the nerve, I’d have become a thief or a gangster, but since I didn’t, I became a photographer.
People ask: “What camera do you use?” I say: “You don’t ask a writer what typewriter he uses.”