Man Ray Quotes & Sayings
Enjoy the top 47 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Man Ray.
Famous Quotes By Man Ray
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
I paint what cannot be photographed, that which comes from the imagination or from dreams, or from an unconscious drive. — Man Ray
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
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
I photograph the things that I do not wish to paint, the things which already have an existence. — Man Ray
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
Don't put my name on it. These are simply documents I make. — Man Ray
Just as I work with paints, brushes, and canvas, I work with the light, pieces of glass and chemistry. — Man Ray
Reality is fabricated out of desire. — Man Ray
To me, a painter, if not the most useful, is the least harmful member of our society. — Man Ray
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
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
I have been accused of being a joker. But the most successful art to me involves humor. — Man Ray
There is no progress in art, any more than there is progress in making love. — Man Ray
I never knew what I was doing until I was done. — Man Ray
Oh, yes, I was a great retoucher. A retoucher is an esthetic surgeon ! — Man Ray
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
One of the satisfactions of a genius is his will-power and obstinacy. — Man Ray
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
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
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
All critics should be assassinated. — Man Ray
When I saw I was under attack from all sides, I knew I was on the right track. — Man Ray
I have never painted a recent picture. — Man Ray
An effort impelled by desire must also have an automatic or subconscious energy to aid its realization. — Man Ray
The streets are full of admirable craftsmen, but so few practical dreamers. — Man Ray
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
I am an economic person; I judge the amount of work involved with the amount of worth attained. — Man Ray
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
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
I do not photograph nature. I photograph my visions. — Man Ray
My works were designed to amuse, annoy, bewilder, mystify and inspire reflection. — Man Ray
A certain amount of contempt for the material employed to express an idea is indispensable to the purest realization of this idea. — Man Ray
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
I photograph what I do not wish to paint, and I paint what I do not wish to photograph — Man Ray
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
I paint when I cannot photograph. — Man Ray
I would photograph an idea rather than an object, a dream rather than an idea. — Man Ray