Picking up my sword I leaned upon it, looking down on the dead body of my foeman, and as I thought of the battle I had just fought and won a great idea was born in my brain—the outcome of this and the suggestion.

This year there were high level bike builders, hard riders and cool human beings from around the globe and they all went over the high passes from France to Spain. Some went fast, some went less-fast, one almost got his balls burned off by a lithium battery. Southsiders wanted to feature all 50 but there was no time.

In one of these rooms, and almost without blinds or reflectors, the sitter could be “worked” on a semi-circle or half oval, and “lighted” either in front or on either side at pleasure, and with the greatest facility. I determined, there and then, to build my next studio on similar principles.

My studio can be lighted from either side; but the “light of lights” is the north one, and that is a large fixed window 11 by 9 feet with a single slope of two and a half feet in the height.

All images are under copyright © Laurent Nivalle