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M sent me a photograph by Daguerre. It is of the first human being to be photographed. Someone is cleaning the shoes of someone. All descriptions of the photograph claim that the first human being to be photographed is the figure having his shoes cleaned. I see first the figure cleaning the shoes as the photograph's subject. Secondly, the event of the shoe-cleaning. From this immediately I saw the state of the world.

Verso 40.6

Dionne Brand

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