ARE YOU CERTAIN that's me? Madeleine asks, examining the photograph: an unsmiling child punishing a naked man.
The photographer coats a glass plate with collodion; he nods, abstractedly.
When you disappear behind the camera, I tell my eyes: look forgiving. 1 tell my mouth: appear noble. Where does she go, the person who is forgiving and noble and tender?
Adrien, feeding the plate into the dark maw of his box, says, I'm simply taking your picture.
The me in this photograph is not me, the girl insists. She is Madeleine's ghost, pinned here to the paper.
Adrien lurches dangerously; his equipment sways: Are you ready?
But his subject is not satisfied: Who is that person in the picture?
One, two, three, Adrien counts.
Is there another child out there, sulky and cruel, whom you have accidentally captured in your photograph? And is her name Madeleine?