Photograph of an Aerograph (Nudes)

In the 1919 airbrush painting Nudes, Man Ray employed a sculpture made that same year, Hermaphrodite, as the stencil for the forms. Although a brief period in his work, Man Ray became quite skilled with the airbrish technique. "'It was like painting in 3-D; to obtain the desired effects you had to move the airbrush nearer or farther from the canvas. Another thing I liked about it was the spontaneous character of the composition. The effect was obtained instantly and you couldn't correct it afterwards; it was like shooting with a gun, you either hit the mark or you don't! When I think of it, it was almost automatic painting. I was more interested in the idea I wanted to communicate than in the aesthetics of the picture, and here was a way to express my ideas more rapidly than by a painting. I was already trying to get away from painting in the traditional manner.'" (Schwarz, Man Ray: The Rigour of Imagination, p. 39.) As Man Ray began to photograph his paintings, he took his work even farther from the traditions of painting, removing it again from those standards and presenting it in a more immediate technique.