Ray of Light

 

 

Theory is born of adequate thought and perseverance. In time and space,

there lies a subtle arrangement of  chance. Once the two meet, ( Theory & Chance )

a discovery is born.

In science, advances are often made through experimentation. It is the dedication of the examiner in play who invokes the answers to these medical and technological advances. The balance of theory and chance are also found within another realm. Through its trials of discovery and grandeur, even the art world has progressed. Experimenting its way out of our souls onto the canvas of our medium.

Hence the birth of Emmanuel Radnitsky, known to most as Man Ray.

Ray revolutionized the understanding of light in some of the most treasured antics ever captured on film. His surrealistic impression on the world has become an icon in modern art. From his dada inspired forms of irrationalism, to his conquest of perfecting the photograph, came a vision for a better cinema. A cinema that is, born of poetic imagery and the desire to affect the deeper levels of our consciousness. ( Janus )

This is not a biography of the life of Man Ray.  Nor is this an appraisal to the accomplishments he beheld throughout the duration of his story. This is most and foremost a study. A study of his efforts to produce cinematic poetry and his subjection

thereof. Some may argue of Man Ray’s efforts and beliefs in film history. Yet his visions have opened the door to true cinematic artistry.

Man Ray, the painter was a person influenced by Dada and Surrealistic movements. This impression on the artist’s life was the essence of much of his work.

After having found a love for his camera, Man Ray began to shape the world’s view of photography as an art form. His experiments with the photogram or Rayograph

initiated his voyage of painting a photograph without the camera. Photography is

painting with light, and Man Ray found a way to do just that. ( Donovan )

 

Rotary Glass Plate

 

Already an established painter and photographer, Man Ray stumbled upon his first steps in cinematic involvement when he met Marcel Duchamp, a European

Avant-garde interpreter. In 1920, Ray and Duchamp worked together on a project

 This was a three-dimensional film based on the anaglyphic process. A process involving red and green glasses. Duchamp approached Ray with proposals to such  projects. Duchamp believed he could get a three-dimensional effect with the use of two cameras joined together at a common axis rotating and simultaneously filming a globe with a spiral painted on it. The effect, would become a double image that once projected would appear to be out in open space. ( Lottman )

Unfortunately, the film underwent serious damage during development. Of the film that wasn’t lost, there was but two matching strips. “ Upon examination, through an old stereopticon, gave the effect of relief. To carry on the experiment, capital was needed as well as several other adjustments to make it  practical for public presentation; the project was abandoned ”   ( Ray )

 

Other trials of filmmaking occurred for young Man Ray. Before his unprecedented departure from New York, Ray filmed a sequence inspired by a portrait of Duchamp’s star-shaven head, were he was seen shaving the public hair of a  nude model.

This too, was ruined during processing… The short sequence of two lesbian lovers was another one of Man Ray’s efforts. As seen by the archives of the Man Ray Trust, the Love Scene Lovers was pornographic in nature. However, the eroticism portrayed in Man Ray’s work was of greater integrity than most  x-rated films we have in our world today.

The first of his cinematic masterpieces was already manifesting in our metaphysical existence. Man Ray’s chance to discover it would soon rise.

 

Return to Reason

 

As mentioned earlier, Man Ray was a leading founder in the art of photogramy. His abstract prints painted with light and without the camera was the beginning of what

was to come. In 1922, as the Rayograph emerged, and obscured reality blossomed, the concept of an abstract film was only  time away. ( Tatom)

 A fellow artist by the name of Tristan Tzara, who neighbored Ray at the time provoked an interesting ideology in the mind of our poet. Dadaism had not yet been pursued in motion picture theology. Tzara persuaded Man Ray to continue his experiments and reveal his surreal, artistic merit in cinematic perspective. Tzara appeared before Man Ray one morning with a programme to a Dadaist gathering. Man Ray’s name was mentioned as producer to a dada-based film. Ray, hesitant, knew he had less than a minute’s worth of footage to reveal. But after the consideration of Tzara’s suggestion of the Rayograph on film, Ray promised to compile some footage for the manifestation to be held the following day. ( Shwarz )

 The following evening, only moments after Ray arrived at the theatre . . .

Tzara spoke, “ Return to Reason, a fist showing, by that renowned artist, Man Ray, made in one of his lucid moments.”  The audience relaxed and the room faded to black.

It begins with what seems to be a snowstorm, but with no rhythmic pattern or trace of direction.  This transcends to  fields of daisies followed by another radical scene of piercing pins in dance. A thumbtack desperately attempts to make its way out of the screen. Suddenly the film brakes due to Ray’s inexpert mounting. The theatre goes black for a moment. The next image was of a light stripped torso, which called forth applause.

Then as a spiral and egg-crate carton began to revolve on screen, the film broke once more.  Theatre, once again,  fading to black.  One spectator shouts his dissatisfaction, A dada believer answers back to him. Words got uglier and a blow was stricken. Fight broke out; disputes set forth by others and the need for authority soon intervened. ( Ray )

Hence, Return to reason concluded in  the opposite of just that. A return to no reason,

the unreason and all reason. .

 

   Emak Bakia

        

         After  the manifestation of Return to Reason and the acceptance and aesthetics thereof, came a film commissioned by Arthur Wheeler, a youth who admired Man Ray. Wheeler believed that Man Ray was wasting his time with what he referred to as bread and butter photography.  When Ray asked as to why he believes what he has done could one day be bigger and better, Wheeler spoke of films as being the future for all art and moneymaking. Man Ray agreed, but laughed at the idea of  a producer who would fund his films. The following day, both found themselves in front of Wheeler’s lawyer as he signed away the funds for Ray to make his next film. ( Lottman )

 

        Man Ray started working immediately. He assembled various accessories such as lamps, crystals, mirrors, and such and also decided to incorporate strips of his earlier dada-based film. Inspired by a scenic drive with Rose Wheeler, Ray shot film as the camera was being tossed in the air. Things like a whirlwind of sea and land, herds on rampage, and a pair of lovely legs doing the Charleston dance soon emerged. ( Schwarz ) The dada ideology remains within Ray’s soul. The film beginning shows the reflection of Ray as the filmmaker showing him not only as author, but also creator. The films finale became that of a handsome friend of the dada dressed ideally and groomed to perfection set out with a briefcase, onto a taxi, into a studio and opening the suitcase inside as he ripped his collar which  danced its way around the room. This was printed in reverse, giving the effect of a surrealistic film ending in a more traditional cinematic fashion. ( Benstock & Ferriss )

 

           Man Ray wrote: “ A series of fragments, a cinepoem with certain optical sequences making a whole that remains a fragment. Just as one can much better appreciate the abstract beauty in a fragment of a classic work than its entirety, so this film tries to indicate the essentials in contemporary cinematography. It is not an ‘abstract’ film or a story-teller;  its reasons for being are its inventions of light-forms and movements, while the more objective parts interrupt the monotony of abstract inventions or serve as punctuation.”  This film was not even experimental, for what was shown was the result of such experiments,  the end-result was therefore the interaction of chance and theory in a fashion that was purely optical and entertaining to the human eye.

 

L’ Etoile de mer

 

In 1928, a French surrealist poet by the name of Robert Desnos, became the reason for a  film. Based on his poem, L’ Etoile de mer, is what Ray describes as

“ a senario for a film. A poem depicting of twenty lines with no dramatic action, yet all the elements of a possible action…”

 As always, Ray would not employ professional actors, but instead, use people who surrounded his life. The actor afterall, was merely a representation of the symbolic nature of human existence. Of the three characters in the story, a tall blonde ( Andre’ de la Riviere ) would play the man, Kiki ( Ray’s love interest at the time ) would play the woman, and Desnos himself, the stranger at the end of the story. ( Lottman )

Man Ray’s film was also the first to make use of poetic captions. Not as a subtitle, but as a reflection of the corresponding imagery. Also, although romantic in nature, the story is not a romance. It does not depict the moment in which they fall in love, but symbolizes the relationship through visual art. All in all this film was of great merit, and it became his most successful film to date. ( Shwarz ) However, Ray never received enough from it to secure his place in filmmaking… Man Ray’s perspective on film began its decent.

 

     The Mystery of the Chateau of the Dice

 

         Although by this time, Man Ray, had chosen to return to his photographs and paintings, a chance for another film came upon  him a year later in 1929. Vicomte de Noailles wished for Man Ray to bring down his camera and shoot a sequence of his chateau and the artwork displayed therein. The sequence will also include the guests and was promised to be for no more than personal affairs and not to be released to the public. With this in mind, Ray accepted the request and the makings of his next film began.

 

Mallarme’ s poem, A throw of the dice can never do away with chance, was the theme of the film, hence the awkward title. In short, the film consisted of the interiors of the chateau with all their modern-day lining,  documentary like footage and the Man Ray surrealistic underlining incorporating stockings over the heads of anyone who appeared within the film.  The film’s theory worked around the dice in play.

 The dice was the answer to their current standing within the Chateau walls.  Being that of a “ What shall we do next?” kind of response. It used striking negative effects that rose from Ray’s experiments in solarization and other darkroom techniques. The film was well liked and appreciated and although Ray was offered an opportunity to  make a full-length film, He chose to keep his resolve,  and not continue with his filmmaking. ( Raffles )

 

Amenic wen eht  rrof noisiv a

A vision forr the new cinema…          

 

Epilogue

 

Man Ray, the photographer reluctance towards making more films came from the understanding of what sound would do to the art-medium. He believed film, was a direct response to  the eye.  Similar to my own beliefs, he felt that film, was an art medium involving technique and repose. Such as a painting, a photograph, or drawing. “ I am not interested in making ‘beautiful photographs’ for a film, I would like to see in a film something I have never seen before.”   ( Ray )  Through the technological advances of sound, color and  three-dimensional space, film would become more of a documentary to our lives, a means for entertaining our dreams and desires. However no longer the poetry that is life, those things one can not really capture on film.

 

In conclusion,  Man Ray, the filmmaker was a visionaire in the ways that he saw the film medium. As a poetic response set forth from our deepest affairs.  His techniques were discoveries made through chance and theory.

 

A vision worth striving for. . .