There is no progress in art, any more than there is progress in making love.
MAN RAYThere is no progress in art, any more than there is progress in making love.
MAN RAYI 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 RAYI never knew what I was doing until I was done.
MAN RAYIt has never been my object to record my dreams, just the determination to realize them.
MAN RAYIs 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 RAYOh, yes, I was a great retoucher. A retoucher is an esthetic surgeon !
MAN RAYAn effort impelled by desire must also have an automatic or subconscious energy to aid its realization.
MAN RAYI believe in the relation between photography and music; And thats my inspiration.
MAN RAYLipstick is the red badge of courage.
MAN RAYThanks to my effort in the last 40 years, there has been more paper and film wasted.
MAN RAYJust as I work with paints, brushes, and canvas, I work with the light, pieces of glass and chemistry.
MAN RAYIn the same spirit, when the automobile arrived, there were those that declared the horse to be the most perfect form of locomotion.
MAN RAYI 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 RAYAn original is a creation motivated by desire.
MAN RAYI have been accused of being a joker. But the most successful art to me involves humor.
MAN RAYYou don’t ask a writer what typewriter he uses.
MAN RAY