by Bruce Schaefer

Last month, we posted here about a museum double-header in Richmond VA: concurrent exhibits of Ansel Adams and someone named Man Ray at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. We finally went and are here to report the show was excellent. Ansel Adams will be gone by the time you read this, but the Man Ray show stays until February 21 and is well worth the trip by itself. 

Not to be confused with a fish, Man Ray [real name: Emmanuel Radnitsky – get it?] was a Brooklyn photographer who moved to Paris in 1921 and developed a reputation for portraiture. His aim was to bring out the essence of a person, which he did thru lighting, unusual poses, and by capturing that fleeting but revealing expression. His work was ground-breaking 100 years ago. 

He became something of a reverse paparazzo: celebrities came to him. Ernest Hemingway, Aldous Huxley, Picasso, Erik Satie, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein – the list just does go on. Note these were heavyweights of the age, not the Kardashians. And Paris between the wars was filled with them.  

He was certainly original. One portrait captures the back of a man’s head. Three-quarters view actually – a profile of his face can be seen. But it is eye-catching, and the subject apparently loved it. The picture of Ernest Hemingway has his forehead bandaged: The night before, a bathroom window had slammed him. He was inebriated at the time; certainly one essence of Hemingway. 

Another rarity: some very intriguing pics of the American divorcee, Wallis Simpson, taken days before King-Emperor Edward VIII of England abdicated his throne to marry her. In fact, Ray is famous now for the many “modern women” he captured: women seen as adventurous, assertive, self-assured, financially independent. Again – 100 years ago, this was jaw-dropping.

I came away truly excited about portraiture, eager to try new poses, lighting (high-key, low-key?), and angles, and catching the revelatory moment. In fact, I was personally more inspired by his work than Ansel’s. 

Yep, that good. 

Man Ray: The Paris Years
October 30, 2021 – February 21, 2022
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
200 N. Arthur Ashe Boulevard
Richmond, VA 23220

Museum Hours
Open 365 days a year.
Daily: 10 am – 5 pm
Wed, Thu, and Fri until 9 pm

Information
804.340.1400

Some links:
VMFA – Man Ray: The Paris Years
Man Ray: Solarization – YouTube