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Born Emmanuel Radnitzky in Philadelphia, while also being a painter, object-maker, and avant-garde film maker, he is best known as a surrealist photographer, producing his first significant photographs in 1918.

He was living in New York City, and with his close friend Marcel Duchamp formed the American branch of the Dada movement, which began in Europe as a radical rejection of traditional art. After a few unsuccessful experiments, and notably after the publication of a unique issue of New York Dada in 1920, Man Ray stated that "Dada cannot live in New York" and in 1921Events January 2 The first religious radio broadcast ( KDKA AM in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) January 2 Spanish liner Santa Isabel sinks off Villa Garcia 244 dead January 2 DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park San Francisco opens. January 20 Republic of Turke went to live and work in the MontparnasseMontparnasse Tower, which at 209m was the tallest building in Western Europe when it was built. Montparnasse is an area of Paris, in France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centered on the intersection of the Boulevard de Montparnasse and the Bouleva quarter of Paris during the era of great creativity. It was there that he fell in love with the famous French singer, Kiki ( Alice PrinKiki was the stage name for Alice Ernestine Prin ( 1901 1953), a nightclub singer, actress, model, and painter. Born in Chatillon-sur-Seine, Cote d'Or, Burgundy, France on October 2, 1901. An illegitimate child, she was raised in abject poverty by her gra), often referred to as Kiki de Montparnasse, who later also became his favorite photographic model.

With Jean ArpJean Arp ( September 16, 1886 June 7, 1966) was a sculptor, painter, and poet. Hans Arp was born in Strasbourg. The son of an Alsatian mother and a non-Alsatian German father, he was born during the brief period following the Franco-Prussian War when the, Max ErnstMax Ernst ( April 2, 1891 April 1, 1976) was a German painter. Max Ernst was born in Bruhl, Germany. In 1909, he enrolled in the University at Bonn to study philosophy but soon abandoned these courses to pursue his interest in art. In 1913 he met Guillaum, André MassonAndre-Aime-Rene Masson ( January 4, 1896 October 28, 1987) was a French artist. Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Therain in France but was brought up in Belgium. He studied art in Brussels and Paris. He fought for France in World War I and was seriously inj, Joan MiróJoan Mir ( April 20, 1893 December 25, 1983) was a painter, sculptor and ceramist born in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Drawn to the artistic community gathering in Montparnasse, in 1920 he moved to Paris, where, under the influence of Surrealist poets and, and Pablo Picasso, he was represented in the first Surrealist exhibition at the Galerie Pierre in Paris in 1925.

For the next twenty years in Montparnasse, Man Ray revolutionized the art of photography. Greats artists of the day such as James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Jean Cocteau and numerous others posed for his camera. In 1934, famous surrealist artist known for her fur-covered tea cup, Méret Oppenheim posed for Man Ray in what became a very well-known series of photographs depicting the surrealist artist nude, standing next to a printing press. Together with the surrealist photographer Lee Miller — who was his lover and photography assistant at the time — he invented the photographic technique of solarization . Man Ray is also known for creating a technique using photograms he called rayographs.

Later in life, Man Ray returned to the United States, where he lived in Los Angeles, California for a few years. However, he called Montparnasse home and he returned there where he died on November 18, 1976 and was interred in the Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris, France. His epitaph reads: Unconcerned, but not indifferent.