Raymond Queneau, Collage de photomaton, 1929

This conceptual experiment doesn’t have a fixed title but is most commonly referred to as Photo Booth Pictures. I don’t believe that a diagram means a schematic drawing. I believe that it means a structured, combinatorial layout that reveals a system.

The photo booth sheet works like a diagram because the fixed grid of frames creates a structured system in which the subject’s expressions can vary in a controlled, comparable way. The repeated form of the photo booth cell acts as a constant, while the shifting gestures and faces function as variables, producing a visible sequence across time.

This invites the viewer to detect patterns, differences, and permutations rather than as isolated portraits. In this sense, the work becomes a map of changing states, a visual exploration of how identity and expression transform within rigid constraints, which is precisely what gives it its diagrammatic character.