Man Ray so admired the languorous nudes of French Painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780-1867) that in 1924 he was inspired to photograph his model Kiki in Ingres-like poses. Painting the f-holes of a stringed instrument onto the photographic print and then re-photographing it, Man Ray altered the look of Ingres’s classical nudes.

For the ninth and last studio session of my nude portrait class at Vancouver’s Focal Point I instructed my 14 students to paint the f-holes of a stringed instrument onto the back of models Willa Potter and Yuliya Kamiyanska and then imitate as best they could Man Ray’s famous photograph. In two and a half hours that they had left they had to shoot as many variations as they could.

Using conventional film cameras, advanced digital cameras, colour infrared film and Photoshop techniques my students rose to the challenge in fine form. Much in the vein of a classic jazz ensemble that starts with a well-known melody and then the soloists improvise on it, my students managed to both honour Man Ray’s famous image and express their own individual style.

Alex-Waterhouse Hayward is a much awarded photographer and writer in Vancouver. His photo essays for The Tyee include these scanned images of flowers and this rumination on life and death and the garden as well as thoughts on photographing nudes.