Man Ray was an artist of enormous international standing, who worked in many media including photography. He began to make rayographs when he moved to Paris in 1921. Rayograph was Man Ray's name for photogram, a type of photograph made without a camera or a lens. To make photograms, objects are placed onto light-sensitive paper and then exposed to light. The light areas of the print are where objects have rested on the paper and stopped light exposing the paper.
This technique appealed to Man Ray because the process was automatic, and this fitted into Surrealist thought and practice. It represents ordinary objects in an ambiguous way, capturing their forms and shadows rather than describing their structural or tactile qualities. Almost flat objects appear as almost flat forms, but where the shadow is shown, as with the matchbox, the object is not so easily recognisable. By concentrating on the play of light and shadow, the most familiar of everyday objects take on a strange and unexpected character.