Man Ray - Fleurs (Calla lilies), 1931

Man Ray. Fleurs (Calla lilies), 1931.

'Copyright 2001 Man Ray Trust, Paris / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn' on the bottom back.
Total dimensions: 36,5 x 28,2 cm on semi-gloss paper.
Fine condition.

"Something crawled across my foot in the darkroom and I let out a yell and turned on the light". Thus began Lee Miller, in a 1975 interview recalling her version of how the two artists discovered the solarization process. Miller continued, "I never did find out what it was, a mouse or what. Then I quickly realized that the film was totally exposed. . . The background and the image couldn't heal together, so there was a line left which he called 'solarization' ". While working with Miller, Man Ray made numerous photographs exploring the effects of tone reversal in solarization.

This image, part of a series of calla lilies, shows the thin black line that separates areas where reversal has occurred from areas where it has not.

One of the most influential photographers of the 20th century along with other photographers of his time such as: Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Edward Weston, Robert Capa, Elliott Erwitt, Walter Evans, Philippe Halsman, Diane Arbus, Eve Arnold, Robert Doisneau, Josef Sudek, Robert Mapplethorpe, Steve McCurry, Richard Avedon, among many others.