The Primacy of Matter over Thought 

In this work, a woman is seen lying naked, but something is odd about some parts of her body. Her hair, back, and legs appear to glow, melt, or merge into the floor. The image has been made using a technique of exposing the developing image to light in order to partially invert areas of light and dark. It is a technique that Man Ray and his student, female photographer Lee Miller, discovered by accident and named “solarization.”
Taking advantage of the camera’s “mechanical eye,” Man Ray creates photographic works that emphasize materiality and chance. Instead of trying to achieve a deliberately planned outcome, he favored images that the photograph itself had created automatically. The same concept is reflected in the title of this work.
(MATSUNAGA Shintaro)