The Metropolitan Museum of Art is presenting the first major exhibition dedicated to Man Ray's revolutionary "rayographs," showcasing how the American artist's darkroom accident in 1921 Paris led to an entirely new form of photography. "Man Ray: When Objects Dream" opens September 14 and runs through February 1, 2026, featuring 160 works that explore the artist's radical experimentation with cameraless photography.
While many meticulous artists have been known to destroy their imperfect work, Man Ray embraced his mistakes and turned them into artistic breakthroughs. The legendary moment occurred while working late in his Paris darkroom in 1921, when the artist inadvertently placed glass equipment on top of an unexposed sheet of photographic paper. The resulting phantom image captivated his attention and sparked the creation of what he would call "rayographs."
The exhibition opens with a striking display of 12 rayographs from Man Ray's collection titled "Champs délicieux" (Delicious Fields). These black-and-white images are arranged in a tight grid formation on the wall, featuring everyday objects like combs and keys that create an almost Instagram-like visual effect from the 2010s era. As Man Ray wrote in his 1963 autobiography, "Before my eyes an image began to form, not quite a simple silhouette of the objects as in a straight photograph, but distorted and refracted... In the morning I examined the results, pinning a couple of the Rayographs as I decided to call them on the wall. They looked startlingly new and mysterious."
The exhibition's title, "When Objects Dream," draws inspiration from poet Tristan Tzara, who witnessed some of Man Ray's earliest rayograph experiments. True to its name, the show creates a dreamlike journey through the artist's career, moving in loosely chronological fashion from paintings to photographs, sculptures, and conceptual works. The presentation emphasizes Man Ray's significant connections to both the Dada and Surrealist movements.
Conceptual pieces were integral to Man Ray's practice from the very beginning of his career. Visitors can interact with his "Revolving Doors," a series of colorful collages presented on a rotating stand that guests are encouraged to spin. The artist's sense of humor is evident throughout, particularly in his 1920s piece "Catherine Barometer," which could indicate either changes in air pressure or the unpredictable moods of its namesake.
New York visitors will find special resonance in a piece titled "NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR GOODS LEFT OVER THIRTY DAYS." Inspired by a sign the artist found in the trash, this work features a photograph of Man Ray's studio at 47 West Eighth Street from 1920. The exhibition also includes a fascinating section on botanical prints that references "sun prints," which were the origins of the rayograph technique.
The show provides intimate glimpses into the artist's creative process by displaying actual objects from Man Ray's studios throughout his career, as well as facsimiles of film strips he produced. As he described his experimental approach: "I went into my darkroom and cut up the [film] into short lengths, pinning them down on the worktable. On some of the strips I sprinkled salt and pepper, like a cook preparing a roast, on other strips I threw pins and thumbtacks at random; then turned on the white light for a second or two."
This supposed accident, now the stuff of artistic legend, is pivotal to understanding what Met CEO Max Hollein describes as an "enigmatic" artist. At a press preview for the exhibition, Hollein characterized Man Ray as "a professional provocateur, a true visionary, a manipulator in process, in context and meaning of art." He emphasized that Man Ray "is known to be so experimental that he pushed really the limits of photography, but also painting, of sculpture, of film, of what art is, how art can be done and how art can come together."
The comprehensive exhibition demonstrates how Man Ray's willingness to embrace accidents and mistakes led to groundbreaking innovations that continue to influence contemporary art. By celebrating these "errors" as artistic breakthroughs, the Met's show offers visitors a fresh perspective on the creative process and the role of chance in artistic discovery.
