Joseph Stella and Marcel Duchamp

The American artist Man Ray (1890-1976) was the one who changed the status of photography from a simple record of reality to - also - an art form. His production started in New York with paintings; however, a meeting with the ideas of Dadaism, personally presented by the Frenchman Marcel Duchamp, in 1915, was enough for his concepts of art to expand. Man Ray started producing sculptures according to the ready-made proposal, the main example of this production is the flatiron with tacks (The Gift, 1921). In Paris, the artist dedicated himself to several kinds of art, including cinema. It was when he worked as a portraitist and fashion photographer, that he could indulge in experiments in photography that would include him among the surrealists and as an innovator of the technique.