Marc Ferrez (1843-1923) was not just a photographer. During the 60 years that he worked professionally in his native city of Rio de Janeiro, he was involved in many facets of photography. In addition to his dedication to the production and commercialization of photographic images, he also traded chemicals, equipment and materials related to photography. From the first decade of the twentieth century, he was also dedicated to the film business. His long career - from the opening of his first commercial house in 1867, until his death in 1923 - was conducted over a period of very significant changes to history, and to the city in which he served. This study addresses the production of Ferrez commercial imagery and one of its main objectives is to seize its importance, not only for the development of a visual culture in Brazil but also for the social imagination of the city. If on the one hand, the photographs and its many forms of reproduction allow for the strengthening of a sense of identity among the inhabitants of the country that Rio de Janeiro symbolized, on the other hand, his work was an important instrument of attraction of immigrants and foreigners that entered the country through the then capital city. The diverse range of documents investigated to enable this approach includes reports of travelers, specially Koseritz and Agassiz narratives, the texts and illustrations of Angelo Agostini in the Revista Illustrada, reports from the Ministry of Industry, Traffic and Public Works, and many documents related to personal and professional trajectories of Ferrez, donated by the Family Ferrez in 2007 to the National Archives (Arquivo Nacional, Rio de Janeiro).