Raymond Boyer, owner of the Diltz archive, was born in 1955 in Paris. Between 1970 and 1982 he built up a collection of cinema-related material, buying it in France and the USA (around 500,000 documents including photos, ektachromes, negatives, posters, etc.) After graduating and studying law, Boyer opened a cinema bookshop in 1982 (Sunset Boulevard). That same year, he opened a photo exhibition on Brigitte Bardot with the photographer Sam Levin, and they went on to do a book together about her in 1984. In 1989 Boyer offered his photos to the Sygma agency and started to sell to the press. Hubert Henrotte, head of Sygma, offered him a job at the agency as an editorialist to look after the cinema section of Sygma's People department, so Boyer closed his bookshop in 1992 to devote himself solely to the press. In the meantime, Boyer also worked with Rue des Archives, which was then bought by Bridgeman Images. Today, Boyer continues to add to the Sunset Boulevard image collection with film and digital images through loans, exchanges and purchases.