Guido Rey is one of the main exponents of Italian pictorial photography, both in terms of style and as a source of inspiration. Rey’s scenarios depicted the ancient world or famous works from the past. After an early period dedicated to aspects of Japanese life he turned to the classical world, Flemish painting and the great Dutch artists of the 1600’s (Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals) and to scenes taken from the paintings of the 1700’s and 1800’s. The photographs of his travels are also noteworthy and his trip to the Orient was the subject of his first photographic exhibition in Turin in 1892, as well as his mountain ascents. For him the Matterhorn is both a mountaineering objective and a photographic one as described in an important article published in Turin in 1904. His photographs were displayed in New York and published in the renowned magazines “The Studio” and “Camera Work” created and edited by Stieglitz. Guido Rey exhibited for the first time in 1892, receiving awards at the First National Exhibition of Turin in 1898. The following year his pictures of neo-classical and Flemish inspiration were awarded a gold medal at the Second Exhibition in Florence. Rey’s photographs of Dutch influence were displayed at the International Exhibition of Decorative and Modern Art in Turin in 1902. The Sella Foundation conserves a complete album with 250 pictures of pictorial inspiration, about 40 loose photos in the same style and 150 modern contact  reproductions; a further 70 pictures record family life .