Early examples of solarization in photography. Man Ray

Abstract

The article is devoted to one of the methods of manipulation with photographic images that had
meant the translation of the realistic language of the medium1 to the language of artistic imagery.
Solarization or Sabatier effect became one of the ways to the dematerialization of naturalism and
the attempt to go beyond the documentary. In the 1930s American photographer and artist Man Ray
created a series of works using solarization as a conscious artistic method. Technological method
applied by Ray and by other authors earlier for the purpose of search for a new aesthetic expression
that ultimately led to his modernist appropriation. Solarization prints became the signs of Man Ray’s
surrealist metaphor. He is well known as a photographer and artist in Paris circles, and in addition he
succeeded in the field of commercial photography. The study aims to assess the status of photography
as a material for artistic practices, including surrealistic ones.