Come to Dada

Beryl and I spent a delightful afternoon in the company of the dadaist, surrealist, muses and generally every member of the 1930's Parisian glitterati as photographed by the astonishing Man Ray .

What to make of it? Well he was incredibly talented and was at the heart of the new creative movements, he used and developed photography in ways that are still arresting, for example, solarisation, double exposures, paper overlays but to my mind it all seems very cold and calculated and somehow joyless.

His portraits are, without exception of people who knew how to control and protect their image -nothing was left to chance. You won't see life outside his studio, or working people in the streets it seems his art reflected only those who had access to the inner elite and of course, who could pay for the privilege.

Maybe its just not to my taste, maybe you have to separate the content from the technique. Who knows?

Ground breaking?
Yes.
Influential?
No doubt - but I like a bit of warmth and humanity and it's not here.