Le Souffle from the portfolio Electricité

1920s

A photography studio: portraits of Paris bohemia

Convinced that he cannot make a living from his art alone, Ray buys a camera and opens a studio; he creates a series of famous photographic portraits of Erik Satie, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein and Jean Cocteau.

1920s

Discovering Eugène Atget with Berenice Abbott

Together with his assistant Berenice Abbott, Ray discovers the photography of Eugène Atget, bringing it to the attention of the Surrealists and a wider public.

1929

An affair with Lee Miller and solarization

Ray begins a love affair with the Surrealist photographer Lee Miller, who is also his photographic assistant; together they reinvent the technique of solarization. Miller leaves him in 1932.

1933–1934

Méret Oppenheim poses nude

The Surrealist artist Méret Oppenheim, known for her fur-covered teacup, poses nude for a well-known series of photographs in which she stands next to a printing press.