The Man

We were looking at Len Lye’s Free Radicals (1958) and Colour Box (1935) on YouTube the other day (yes, you can see them both here) and came across La retour à la raison. It was Man Ray’s first film and first shown in 1923. You can see how Man Ray achieved very similar results to Len Lye using his rayograph technique. Instead of scratching or painting directly onto the film’s surface, Man Ray put objects like pins and salt on the film and exposed it to light. Later in the film Man Ray adds live images including his famous model Kiki.