Man Ray was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements, although his ties to each were informal. These Man Ray quotes will motivate you.
Best Man Ray Quotes
1. I would photograph an idea rather than an object, a dream rather than an idea. ~ Man Ray
2. I never knew what I was doing until I was done. ~ Man Ray
3.My works were designed to amuse, annoy, bewilder, mystify and inspire reflection. ~ Man Ray
4.When I saw I was under attack from all sides, I knew I was on the right track. ~ Man Ray
5.Of course, there will always be those who look only at technique, who ask ‘how’, while others of a more curious nature will ask ‘why’. Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information. ~ Man Ray
6.A camera alone does not make a picture. To make a picture you need a camera, a photographer and above all a subject. It is the subject that determines the interest of the photograph. ~ Man Ray
7. To create is divine, to reproduce is human. ~ Man Ray
8. Reality is fabricated out of desire. ~ Man Ray
9. I do not photograph nature. I photograph my visions. ~ Man Ray
10.You don’t ask a writer what typewriter he uses. ~ Man Ray
11. The tricks of today are the truths of tomorrow. ~ Man Ray
12. Nature does not create works of art. It is we, and the faculty of interpretation peculiar to the human mind, that see art. ~ Man Ray
13.To me, a painter, if not the most useful, is the least harmful member of our society. ~ Man Ray
14. “The streets are full of admirable craftsmen, but so few practical dreamers.” ~ Man Ray
15. “Each one of us, in his timidity, has a limit beyond which he is outraged. It is inevitable that he who by concentrated application has extended this limit for himself, should arouse the resentment of those who have accepted conventions which, since accepted by all, require no initiative of application. And this resentment generally takes the form of meaningless laughter or of criticism, if not persecution.” ~ Man Ray
16.”I believe in the relation between photography and music; And thats my inspiration.” ~ Man Ray
17. “I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence. ~ Man Ray
18. “I have been accused of being a joker. But the most successful art to me involves humor.” ~ Man Ray
19. “Quote me as much as you like; as a matter of fact I don’t even mind if you misquote me !” ~ Man Ray
20. “There is no progress in art, any more than there is progress in making love.” ~ Man Ray ~ Man Ray
21.”Personally, I have always preferred inspiration to information.” ~ Man Ray
22. “Lipstick is the red badge of courage.” ~ Man Ray
23. “If the affairs of the world were put in the hands of the screwball artists, it couldn’t be in a worse state than it is now !” ~ Man Ray
24. “Dada cannot live in New York. All New York is dada, and will not tolerate a rival.” ~ Man Ray
25. “Just as I work with paints, brushes, and canvas, I work with the light, pieces of glass and chemistry.” ~ Man Ray
26. “A creator needs only one enthusiast to justify him.” ~ Man Ray
27. “Is photography an art? There is no point in trying to find out if it is an art. Art is old-fashioned. We need something else.” ~ Man Ray
28. “Speaking of nudes, I have always had a great fondness for this subject, both in my paintings and in my photos, and I must admit, not for purely artistic reasons.” ~ Man Ray
29. “An original is a creation motivated by desire.” ~ Man Ray
30. “If I’d had the nerve, I’d have become a thief or a gangster, but since I didn’t, I became a photographer.” ~ Man Ray
31. “All critics should be assassinated.” ~ Man Ray
32. “I like contradictions. We have never attained the infinite variety and contradictions that exist in nature. Tomorrow I shall contradict myself. That is the one way I have of asserting my liberty, the real liberty one does not find as a member of society.” ~ Man Ray
33. “It has never been my object to record my dreams, just the determination to realize them.” ~ Man Ray
34. “Oh, yes, I was a great retoucher. A retoucher is an esthetic surgeon !” ~ Man Ray
35. “A certain amount of contempt for the material employed to express an idea is indispensable to the purest realization of this idea.” ~ Man Ray
36. “An effort impelled by desire must also have an automatic or subconscious energy to aid its realization.” ~ Man Ray
37. “An original is a creation motivated by desire. Any reproduction of an originals motivated be necessity. It is marvelous that we are the only species that creates gratuitous forms. To create is divine, to reproduce is human.” ~ Man Ray
38. “Cut out the eye from a photograph of one who has been loved but is seen no more. Attach the eye to the pendulum of a metronome and regulate the weight to suit the tempo desired. Keep going to the limit of endurance. With a hammer well-aimed, try to destroy the whole at a single blow.” ~ Man Ray quotes
39. “All my life I have painted pictures so that certain people would drop dead when they looked at them, but I have not succeeded yet. The worst painting cant hurt you, but a bad driver can kill you, a bad judge can send you to the chair, a bad politician can ruin an entire country, That is why even a bad painting is sacred.” ~ Man Ray
40. “I paint what cannot be photographed, something from the imagination… I photograph the things I don’t want to paint, things that are already in existence.” ~ Man Ray
41.”In the same spirit, when the automobile arrived, there were those that declared the horse to be the most perfect form of locomotion.” ~ Man Ray
42. “I paint when I cannot photograph.” ~ Man Ray
43. “I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive.” ~ Man Ray
44. “I am not going to be dictated to by the size of the camera. I use everything from an 8 x 10 to a 35-mm. But I don’t use these modern cameras which break down all the time !” ~ Man Ray
45. “One of the satisfactions of a genius is his willpower and obstinacy.” ~ Man Ray
46. “I have never painted a recent picture.” ~ Man Ray
47. “Thanks to my effort in the last 40 years, there has been more paper and film wasted.” ~ Man Ray
48. “I am an economic person; I judge the amount of work involved with the amount of worth attained.” ~ Man Ray
49. “l photograph what l do not wish to paint and l paint that which l cannot photograph.” ~ Man Ray
50. “The complicated engines manufactured by men demand if one really wants to use them, much calm. Ever since our love for machines replaced the love we used to have for our fellow man, catastrophes proceed to increase.” ~ Man Ray
