Autoportrait au tabouret n°2 en tirage négatif 

This is a photograph, made by Pierre Molinier, entitled "Autoportrait au tabouret n°2 en tirage négatif". It is a photographic negative, made with a camera and darkroom processing. The choice of photographic medium is essential here. Photography had emerged in the nineteenth century as a means of capturing the world with unprecedented fidelity. Yet Molinier uses it here in a deliberately artificial way. Note the careful posing, the theatrical lighting, and of course the reversal of tone achieved by printing a negative image. The effect is unsettling. Molinier, in drag, presents us with a vision of himself that is mediated, constructed, and fundamentally unreal. This self-portrait challenges the viewer, asking us to consider how identity itself can be understood as a process of making. It goes beyond mere appearance. This is especially true given Molinier's own biography; he was known to live in a state of near-constant cross-dressing. The photograph is both a document and a fabrication, and it dissolves the boundary between these two categories.