as a photographer and montagiste

From Nancy Cunard’s These Were the Hours (1969):

To find covers for Henry-Music was no problem. They should be reproductions of the African scultures and carvings of which I by then had many. To do the covers Man Ray’s name came to me at once, for he had not only a strong appreciation for African art but for Henry as well…Surely one of the most striking developments in the arts of the twenties is photomontage, and of course Man Ray had worked for years already as a photographer and montagiste. His vision in taking and placing and, as it were, in “mating” various objects, was often supreme. I think the many African ivory bracelets of considerable age, and the other pieces so beautifully set together  by him on the two covers of Henry-Music are another proof of this.