After training at l’École des Arts Décoratifs in Nice, Marcel Bovis (1904-1997, FR) worked first as a designer for Galeries Lafayette and then for Le Bon Marché. In 1926, during his military service, he discovered photography as well as the techniques of solarisation and photomontage. In 1933 one of his prints was published in the magazine Arts et Métiers graphiques. He went on to work with the publication, producing reportage photography of funfairs, arts and crafts and reproductions of artworks. His work as a photographer and illustrator gradually took precedence over his design work as orders from the illustrated press multiplied (Paris-Magazine, Aujourd’hui, AMG Photographie). While continuing to illustrate numerous books, he was commissioned to photograph Algeria in 1950 with the aim of establishing a photographic library for the General Government.  

He seems to have come to Marseille to photograph the transporter bridge twice, once in 1928 and then again in 1945, as the annotations on the pictures preserved by the Musée Cantini attest.