From the 19th Century, painters have collected documentary photographs using them as models for their own works. The artistic avant-garde of the 20th Century takes hold the principle. During the 1920's and 1930's, a lot of artists are widely using the scrapbooking (Hannah Höch, George Grosz, Walker Evans). These « collections » regularly leave the private circle and become a work base (collage, photomontage, etc).