Mirrors, TRANS/formation and Slippage in the Five-Way Portrait of Marcel Duchamp.

The article focuses on the transformation of Marcel Duchamp's portrait. Photographed by an attendant using a photo postcard machine, Duchamp and Francis Picabia had their five-way portraits made. The photograph invites consideration of its greater importance within the larger context of Duchamp's work. Moreover, the role of the photographer in the process appears diminished, made mechanical. A good case can be made that Picabia carried a set of postcards with him when he left New York for Europe.