Sean Paul


Leading to the shot, there had been other shots—and indeed, shots by others recalled when looking at this one. Francis Picabia's 1915 mechanomorphic portrait of Alfred Steiglitz, Ici, c'est ici Steiglitz, has been a favorite of mine ever since I first became aware of it. And for Jason, I believe, there was also Picabia, but as a subject in 1940, in a picture taken by Olga (if I'm not mistaken): Picabia, getting on in years, not seen in the usual voiture, but positioned at a curb, stationary on his vélo "petit By," with the small dog Ninie. So, there was a background to the shot, relating to a common interest that would take as its antecedent Picabian representation, which may be summed in a title: Mechanical Expression Seen Through Our Own Mechanical Expression.