American painter, photographer and film director. Born in Philadelphia, Man Ray is best known in the art world for his avant-garde photography; Man Ray produced major works in a variety of media and considered himself a painter above all. Man's early works were done in the cubist style, however after he met Marcel Duchamp, his style became distinctly Dadaistic. He conducted various technical experiments on the artistic creative process, and in 1917 he created the Rayograph –a device that left the impression of light directly on the film negative, without the aid of a camera.