The Problem of the Synthesis of Poetry and Photography in “Facile” by Paul Eluard and Man Ray

Abstract

In the article, the researcher examined the problem of synthesis of poetry and photography in the collection Facile by Paul Éluard and Man Ray (1935) in the context of the Surrealist tradition of photographically illustrated books. The author analyzed Facile in the context of the love lyrics of Paul Eluard and the work of Man Ray, and the problem of the interaction of text and images in the collection as well. In Facile Paul Éluard created his myth about the ideal Woman: she lives in harmonious unity with Nature, gives a man vitality, pleasure and joyful oblivion. However, the beloved woman is important for him not as an independent person with her own thoughts, feelings and desires, but as a kind of magical creature possessing qualities valuable to the Other. It was generally quite typical for the female images interpretation in the art of Surrealism. Man Ray used in Facile his favorite contrasts of black and white and deprived the image of Nush Éluard of materiality through solarization, photomontage and silhouette shooting techniques, which corresponds to the main idea of ​​the collection — lightness. Man Ray created the ideal image of a woman-Muse — pure, sublime, graceful, passive, and sexual, making her body a kind of fetish, a faceless object of desire and worship. The author concluded that it’s possible to identify both direct and indirect parallels between the text and the image in Facile. The closeness of the ideas expressed by the poet and the photographer and the harmonious combination of the two types of art in the design of the book allowed to estimate it as a unique artistic whole.