The best business decision Emmanuel Radnitzky ever made was to call himself “Man Ray.” Two words, two syllables; one from earth, the other of heaven. The nomenclature wouldn’t have made a difference, though, if he didn’t associate himself with the right people—namely, Alfred Stieglitz and Marcel Duchamp . Stieglitz was a photographer who brought the European avant-garde to America, opened Man Ray’s mind to photography, and helped facilitate his passage to Paris, changing his life and career forever. Duchamp was the spirit of the avant-garde wheeling through history on a squeaky unicycle. The first time he met Man Ray, they played a game of tennis in an orchard in New Jersey. There was no net. Man Ray called out the score—fifteen, thirty, forty, love—and Duchamp said the same word after e

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