Portraits of The Artist; Magritte's photographs mirror the absurdity of his paintings.

Byline: Daniela Perdomo

When RenA[c] Magritte was 13, his mother committed suicide by jumping into the River Sambre. He was there 17 days later when her body was fished out of the water, naked but for her face, which was obscured by her nightgown. As the pictures on display in the new exhibit "Magritte and Photography" (at the Maison EuropA[c]enne de la Photographie in Paris through June 11) make clear, that experience profoundly affected the young surrealist's work. Among the show's 250 photos taken by or of Magritte are many in which the subject's face is obscured or out of view.

Indeed, Magritte plays with issues of identity, never ceasing to question the face as the most direct portal to a person's thoughts. In "L'Aminence Grise" ("The Gray Eminence") he appears on a Belgian beach in a singlet bathing suit, an open book mysteriously placed on his upper back. The image is representative of what Magritte's paintings were best known for: the juxtaposition of completely unrelated, contradictory or impossible objects.

Many of the photos shed light on his paintings. In "Dieu, le HuitiA[umlaut]me Jour" ("God, The Eighth Day"), the artist is shown--or barely shown--sitting, cane in hand, behind a canvas and under a blanket. This 1937 snapshot, taken in Magritte's backyard outside Brussels, was clearly the study for several different works that closely resemble it: "Le ThA[c]rapeute" ("The Therapist")--of which at least four versions were painted--a 1947 ...