It’s a mixture of his own work focusing on his circle of artistic friends such as Duchamp, Bretton, Picasso and Cocteau, his muses and lovers (Alice Prin, Lee Miller and Juliet Browner) and his magazine commissions for the likes of Vogue. It’s also a mixture of the artistic (to a small extent) and the more straight forward professional portrait (to a greater extent). Within the former category are the introduction of his trademark solarisation technique developed with Lee Miller – his assistant who went on to become a celebrated photographer – and the classic lady as a violin and Lee Miller with an African mask, here as a triptych. The more standard portraits hold a number of surprises, for me personally anyway, as I wasn’t aware of the number of extremely well know images, such as the classic image of Virginia Wolf, which were taken by him.
As this is at the National Portrait Gallery, it’s naturally portrait focused. I have to confess it’s not my favourite subject matter and as a sort of historic, more formal, Testino-esque celebrity litany, I found it palled after a while. Many will have the opposite reaction no doubt. This show brings together more than 150 vintage prints many of which have never been exhibited in the UK, but despite the interesting muse sections, this is ultimately about the sitters rather than the photographer.
Man Ray Portraits
National Portrait Gallery, London
Until 27 May 2013
Johnny Tucker
