Man Ray's Montparnasse by Herbert R Lottman
For the first 30 years of the 20th century, Montparnasse was a hotbed of artistic activity and the centre of avant-garde Europe. Man Ray was there to document it. He photographed the artists, writers and poets. Within a year of his arrival, he was invited to be Gertrude Stein's official portraitist and to record the image of Marcel Proust on his deathbed. He photographed Picasso and Peggy Guggenheim, made films alongside Andre Breton and played chess with Marcel Duchamp. Man Ray's colourful biography is merged with his black-and-white images to create an intimate perspective on the legendary Left Bank of Paris in the years between the two World Wars.