photography

Since its inception, photography's validity as an art form has been questioned. As a form of mechanical reproduction, photography was maligned as being more technological than creative. Dadaists, in contrast, embraced photography, relishing its modern means of creation. Their experiments with the medium include use of double exposures, radical perspective, and unconventional subjects. Dadaists also experimented with photograms—camera-less photographic prints that record the placement of objects on photosensitive paper that has been exposed to light; these are among some of the earliest abstract photographs. Man Ray, the dadaist most committed to photography, abandoned painting altogether, largely dedicating his artmaking after 1918 to film and photography.