Mar 28, 2025
Self-portrait as a Drowned Man, Hippolyte Bayard, 1840
"The corpse which you see here is that of M. Bayard ... the poor wretch has drowned himself. Oh the vagaries of human life...! He has been at the morgue for several days, and no-one has recognized or claimed him.
Ladies and gentlemen, you'd better pass along for fear of offending your sense of smell, for as you can observe, the face and hands of the gentleman are beginning to decay.”
Hippolyte Bayard's (partial) message on the back of this earliest known, and staged, photographic protest.
