Ask me, if you like, to choose what I con­sider the ten best pho­tographs I have pro­duced until now, and here is my reply:

1. An acci­den­tal snap­shot of a shadow between two other care­fully posed pic­tures of a girl in a bathing suit.

2. A close-up of an ant colony trans­ported to the lab­o­ra­tory, and illu­mi­nated by a flash.

3. A twi­light pic­ture of the Empire State Build­ing com­pletely emp­tied of its tenants.

4. A girl in neg­ligee attire, call­ing for help or merely attract­ing attention.

5. A black and white print obtained by plac­ing a fun­nel into the tray of devel­op­ing liq­uid, and turn­ing the light onto the sub­merged paper.

6. A dying leaf, its curled end des­per­ately claw­ing the air.

7. A close-up of an eye with the lashes well made up, a glass tear rest­ing on the cheek.

8. Frozen fire­works on the night of a 14th of July in Paris.

9. Pho­to­graph of a paint­ing called, “The rope dancer accom­pa­nies her­self with her shad­ows. Man Ray 1916.”

10. Pho­to­graph of a bro­ken chair car­ried home from Grif­fith Park, Hol­ly­wood, at one of its bro­ken legs the slip­pers of Anna Pavlova.

Do you doubt my sin­cer­ity? Really, if you imag­ine that I value your opin­ion enough to waste two min­utes of my pre­cious time try­ing to con­vince you, you are entirely mistaken.

— man ray, from the essay Pho­tog­ra­phy Is Not Art, 1943