Metro Portraits

The forty-three found portraits in this collection are pictures of pictures, taken in the Paris Metro between September 24, 2003, and June 1, 2007, using the built-in camera in a Palm Zire 71 personal digital assistant (PDA). Some of the persons in the portraits are recognizable; among them are celebrities living and dead, some named and some nameless. Basketball player Tony Parker's portrait appears as well as that of Marilyn Monroe. Three French film stars, Lætitia Casta, Sophie Marceau and Monica Bellucci, share a triptych. Pierre-Auguste Renoir's wife and model Aline Charigot, Alphonsine Fournaise, the actress Angèle and the Impressionist painter Gustave Caillebotte populate a four-panel polyptych. The Chevalier de Saint George, an 18th century composer and equestrian, appears, as well as the Lady of the Unicorn from the medieval tapestry. Superman's here too, and so is the late Jean Gabin. Some of the portraits are anonymous. Everyone is free to guess who's who.