A self-taught photographer, Man Ray (1890 – 1976, US) became the chosen portrait artist of the Surrealists. He contributed to La Révolution surréaliste, Cahiers d’art and Minotaure, made his debut in the fashion world with Paul Poiret and was published in a number of magazines. At the same time, he created an inventive oeuvre marked by a great hybridisation of genres (photomontage, photocollage, etc.) and the use of processes such as photogrammetry and solarisation. Averse to all dogmatic thought, he never became a member of the group, but he did participate in the Exposition internationale du surréalisme in 1938, appearing as ‘master of lights’ on the invitation.  His series of images of Marseille and the transporter bridge are likely from the album Paris, castles, etc., created during a journey between Paris and the French Riviera in 1936. Meeting Picasso, Dora Maar, the Eluards and the Penroses in Mougins, he travelled through the south, photographing landscapes and urban scenes in a rather unusual style, far from the ‘Neues Sehen’ movement and his usual Surrealist reveries.