Trained as a painter and sculptor in New York, Man Ray (1890–1976) was a prolific contributor to the Dada and Surrealist movements. From 1921 he lived in Paris, where he significantly advanced the possibilities of photography with experimental techniques such as the photogram (or ‘Rayograph’), in which objects placed directly onto photosensitive paper are exposed to light to achieve ethereal images. Working as a fashion photographer until the 1930s, he is celebrated for his stylised portraits of Parisian notables such as Kiki de Montparnasse and Luisa Casati. With the outbreak of the Second World War, he relocated to Los Angeles, returning to Paris in 1951, where he spent the remainder of his life.

Ray enjoyed the contours and forms of the human body and La Prière is among his most iconic nude studies. It shows the backside of his assistant and lover Lee Miller who covers her modesty with her hands, the placement of which suggests prayer and chastity. The work’s title reflects Ray’s penchant for ambiguity and word play; literally translated as ‘The Prayer’, it also means ‘The Invitation’ – an old French slang term for ‘to reveal where the money is hidden’. Through a combination of careful lighting and framing, Ray creates a sense of disembodiment and fragmentation.

A similar effect is achieved in Untitled N.D., in which a woman rests her head atop a classical sculpture of a female torso while her own body remains hidden from view. Looking downward, she avoids the camera’s voyeuristic gaze. The contrast between light and dark is striking, as is the juxtaposition of flesh and plaster, living and inanimate – a strategy favoured by Surrealist artists to investigate the relationship between the object, the corporeal and the psychological, and which here prompts questions about the idealisation and objectification of women’s bodies.