Man Ray MS

There are many many Man Ray collections available now and choosing the best collection is fairly difficult unless you can preview each of them. Ive seen many, but this is the first collection I felt compelled to purchase for a number of reasons. First, the quality of the reproductions are uniformly excellent. The book is a nice size for this sort of thing. The photographs are large and the images are detailed. Taschen always does a great job with this sort of thing. Second, the selections present a nice spectrum of Rays work. It begins with a generous selection of his figure studies before moving on to some fashion work, a few of his famous Rayographs, and some portraits. If you have a particular area of interest, you may prefer a more specific collection. For instance, if you are interested in his portraits of surrealists and dadaists, there are collections of those. Similarly, if youre a fan of his figure studies, there are plenty of books that cover those images exclusively. What this Taschen edition does the best is represent all of his styles in one easily accessibly volume. Finally, the text is engaging and informative. Trilingual essays begin each section by framing the work historically as well as aesthetically. Anytime you read a trilingual book, its always a gamble on readability. Fortunately for all you fellow English speakers, English is the largest and most prominent on the page. There is also a chronology thrown in for good measure. Little features such as this really set this collection apart from the others. The combination of beautiful, large reproductions, informative text, and a comprehensive collection of images make this a great choice for anyone interested in Man Ray or surrealist art in general.